NEW YORK, August 11, 2026 (WAFA) – “The West Bank is at the breaking point,” Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Ramiz Alakbarov warned on Tuesday.
Addressing a meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, Alakbarov said that as of 10 August, 76 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in 2026, including 18 minors.
He added that in 2026 alone, 3,800 Palestinians - nearly half of them children - have been displaced due to settler violence, demolitions and evictions.
“Settler violence has reached unprecedented levels,” he stressed, noting that the UN has documented more than 1,430 incidents this year, affecting some 260 Palestinian communities.
“The pattern is clear”, he said: Palestinians are being forcibly displaced across the West Bank before settlers seize the vacated land.
He noted that Israeli colonist attacks, previously concentrated in Area C, are increasingly reported in Area B and even Area A.
The UNSC held the session, the second in two weeks amid escalating violence in the West Bank affecting Palestinians, at the request of European Council members, supported by Bahrain, China, Pakistan and the Russian Federation.
Meanwhile, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Deputy Executive Director Hannan Sulieman told the story of a grandmother in the West Bank who was afraid to leave her home after a grenade was thrown into her kitchen while her grandchildren were inside.
"The fundamental spaces of childhood – the home, the classroom, the street, the community – are becoming increasingly unsafe," she warned.
Between January 2024 and July 2026, 174 Palestinian children were verified killed by the UN in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem - “more than one child every week”, she said, offering context.
More than 1,500 children were injured – nearly half of them by live ammunition. Over the same period, 3 Israeli children were killed and 15 injured.
As well, she voiced that 355 Palestinian children from the West Bank are being held in Israeli military detention – “the highest number in eight years”.
She pressed the UNSC to protect children, end the forced displacement of Palestinian families, protect access to education and healthcare and safeguard humanitarian operations.
“Children in the West Bank have the same rights as children everywhere,” she said, adding: “ To live, to learn, to be protected and to imagine a future beyond violence and fear.”
K.F.
