GENEVA- There has been an increase in killings of and attacks against Palestinians by settlers and security forces in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday.
“Israeli settlers and security forces have intensified their killings, attacks and harassment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the past weeks,” Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHCR), told reporters in Geneva.
About 30,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the north of the occupied West Bank since the Israeli military launched its “Iron Wall” operation.
It is contributing to the ongoing consolidation of annexation of the West Bank, in violation of international law, the OHCHR said.
In June, the UN recorded the highest monthly count of Palestinians injured in over two decades in the West Bank.
Since January there have been 757 settler attacks on Palestinians or their properties, which is a 13 per cent increase on the same period last year, OHCHR said.
In another development, the United Nations refugee agency reported that one in ten children screened at its clinics in Gaza since 2024 has been malnourished.
“Malnutrition rates are rising in Gaza, especially since the siege was tightened more than four months ago on March 2,” UNRWA’s Director of Communications, Juliette Touma, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Amman, Jordan.
Since January 2024, UNRWA said it had screened more than 240,000 boys and girls under the age of five in its clinics, adding that before the war, acute malnutrition was rarely seen in the Gaza Strip.
“One nurse that we spoke to told us that in the past, he only saw these cases of malnutrition in textbooks and documentaries,” Touma said.
“Medicine, nutrition supplies, hygiene material, fuel are all rapidly running out,” Touma said.
On May 19, Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza, allowing limited UN deliveries to resume. However, UNRWA continues to be banned from bringing aid into the enclave.
Israel and the United States have accused Palestinian group Hamas of stealing from UN-led aid operations – which Hamas denies. They have instead set up the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), using private US security and logistics firms to transport aid to distribution hubs, which the UN has refused to work with.
Meanwhile, the UN rights office said on Tuesday it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US and Israeli-backed GHF and convoys run by other relief groups, including the United Nations.
The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of GHF sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.
At least 964 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023, by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Fifty-three Israelis have been killed in the West Bank and in Israel in reported attacks by Palestinians or in armed clashes, the office added.
