GENEVA, Tuesday, June 4, 2024 (WAFA) – UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today issued a renewed call for an end to the sharp rise in deadly violence in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, and urged accountability for the killing of over 500 Palestinians by Israeli forces and settlers.
“As if the tragic events in Israel and then Gaza over the past eight months were not enough, the people of the occupied West Bank are also being subjected to day-after-day of unprecedented bloodshed. It is unfathomable that so many lives have been taken in such a wanton fashion,” the High Commissioner said.
“The killing, destruction and widespread human rights violations are unacceptable, and must cease immediately. Israel must not only adopt but enforce rules of engagement that are fully in line with applicable human rights norms and standards. Any allegation of unlawful killings must be thoroughly and independently investigated and those responsible held to account.
“Pervasive impunity for such crimes has been commonplace for far too long in the occupied West Bank. Such impunity has created an enabling environment for more and more unlawful killings by the Israeli forces. International law must be respected and enforced, and accountability must be ensured.”
“Fatality verification and in-depth monitoring of over 80 cases by the UN Human Rights Office indicates consistent violations of international human rights law on the use of force by the Israeli forces through unnecessary and disproportionate use of lethal force and an increase in apparently planned targeted killings,” said Türk. “They also show the systematic denial or delaying of medical assistance to those critically injured.
“The violence by the Israeli forces and Israeli settlers, against the backdrop of the scale of killing and destruction continuing in Gaza, have instilled fear and insecurity among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.”
The killing of Palestinians by the Israeli forces, which had already reached a record high in the first nine months of 2023, rose sharply since last October.
Since the start of 2024, almost 200 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli forces, compared with 113 and 50 killed in the same periods in 2023 and 2022 respectively.
K.T
