The United Nations human rights office called on Tuesday for an end to violence in the occupied West Bank in which it said more than 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces and Jewish settlers since last year’s Israel-Hamas conflict.
In a statement, it condemned what it called Israel’s “unnecessary and disproportionate” use of force in the territory and the “systematic denial of medical aid”.
The UN rights office did not receive an immediate response from the Israel Defense Forces to a request for comment.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since the Gaza attack by the militant group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year triggered Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian enclave, which Gaza’s health ministry says killed over 36,000 people.
Israeli forces have cracked down in the West Bank, which Palestinians seek for a future state along with Gaza, making thousands of arrests in recent months.
Israel has previously said its actions aim to prevent escalating violence in the territory, including by Hamas militants, and thwart attacks.
UN human rights monitors studied 80 cases in depth among 505 documented Palestinian deaths in the West Bank since Oct. 7, when Israel said around 1,200 people were killed and 250 abducted.
The cases showed “consistent violations of international human rights law on the use of force by the ISF (Israeli security forces) through unnecessary and disproportionate use of lethal force and an increase in apparently planned targeted killings,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said.
In the same period, 24 Israelis were killed in clashes or attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank, the statement said.
Some Palestinians killed, including children armed only with stones or firecrackers, “clearly did not represent an imminent threat to life,” it added, without specifying deaths caused by settlers or Israeli forces.
The high number shot in the upper body, and denied medical aid, “suggested an intent to kill”, and impunity had become “commonplace” enabling “more and more unlawful killings” by Israeli forces, Turk said.
(With information from Reuters)Violence. violence, occupied West Bank, Israeli security forces
