NEW YORK: Amid raging war in the Gaza Strip, Israeli atrocities against Palestinian people in the Occupied West Bank have increased substantially, a senior official with the United Nations human rights office, OHCHR, said in a statement.
“The Israeli forces are acting as if there is an armed conflict in the Occupied West Bank,” head of the OHCHR Office said. He added that the situation there was already very dire even before hostilities erupted in the Gaza Strip on October 7.
Last year was the deadliest ever for Palestinian people in the Occupied West Bank since the United Nations began keeping records in 2005, and there was also an increase in violations including settler violence, excessive use of force by Israeli forces, demolitions and evictions.
In a statement, demolitions were also reported on Tuesday in the northern village of Furush Beit Dajan. The official said that while global attention has been focused on the Gaza Strip, the intensity and frequency of violations also increased in the Occupied West Bank. The UN official said that “whatever takes place in the Gaza Strip has a massive impact on the Occupied West Bank,” and vice versa, “because they are the same people”.
