UN decries killings of Palestinians in West Bank
Geneva, Switzerland – AFP
The UN rights chief demanded Tuesday an end to surging violence in the occupied West Bank, saying it was “unfathomable” that more than 500 Palestinians had been killed there since October 7.
Volker Turk said the Israeli military and illegal Jewish settlers had killed at least 505 Palestinians in the West Bank in last eight months.
Palestinian officials have given a toll of at least 523.
“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,” he said in a statement.
“It is unfathomable that so many lives have been taken in such a wanton fashion.”
Turk insisted “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,” he said, demanding accountability for all unlawful killings.
Turk decried the “pervasive impunity for such crimes” in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, and which had seen a surge in violence even before October 7.
He pointed to a case over the weekend in which Israeli forces shot dead a teenager and critically injured another who later died near the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp near Jericho in the West Bank.
He said CCTV footage indicated that the boys were shot at a distance of 70 metres while running away after throwing stones and/or Molotov cocktails towards a military post.
Turk’s statement said that the Israeli military had often used lethal force “as a first resort against Palestinian protesters … in cases where those shot clearly did not represent an imminent threat to life”.
Turk warned that the violence had instilled fear and insecurity among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Israel has killed 36,550 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to local health ministry.
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