Geneva:
Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have expanded in record numbers and risk eliminating any practical possibility of a Palestinian state, the UN human rights chief said on Friday.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said the growth of Israeli settlements amounted to Israel's transfer of its own population, which he said was a war crime. The US Biden administration said last month that the settlements were “in violation” of international law, after Israel announced new housing plans in the occupied West Bank.
“Settler violence and settlement violations have reached shocking new levels and threaten to eliminate any practical possibility for the establishment of a viable Palestinian state,” Turk said in a statement accompanying the 16-page report.
The report, based on the UN's own monitoring and other sources, documented 24,300 new Israeli housing units in the occupied West Bank over a one-year period until the end of October 2023, which they said was the highest ever since monitoring began . in 2017.
It also said there had been a dramatic increase in the intensity, severity and regularity of both Israeli settler and state violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, especially since the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.
Israel claims a Biblical birthright to the land where the settlers are expanding. The military says it is conducting counter-terrorism operations in the West Bank and targeting suspected militants.