Situation in West Bank 'drastically deteriorating': UN OHCHR
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The United Nations' human rights chief states that 528 Palestinians, including 133 children, have been killed by Israeli occupation forces or settlers since October.
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UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, speaks during a news conference in Baghdad, Iraq, on August 9, 2023. (AP)
The United Nations' human rights chief warned on Tuesday that the rights situation in the West Bank, including east al-Quds, is rapidly deteriorating, highlighting the "unconscionable death and suffering" occurring in Gaza.
"The situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is dramatically deteriorating," Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told the opening session of the UN Human Rights Council.
He reported that as of June 15, 528 Palestinians, including 133 children, had been killed by Israeli occupation forces or settlers since October, raising "serious concerns of unlawful killings."
"Israel's relentless strikes in Gaza are causing immense suffering and widespread destruction, and the arbitrary denial and obstruction of humanitarian aid have continued," Turk said.
"Israel continues to detain arbitrarily thousands of Palestinians. This must not continue."
He added that Palestinian Resistance movements continue to hold captives, including in populated areas, posing risks to both Israeli captives and civilians. That said, the Israeli occupation has killed more than 37,372 people in Gaza, according to its health authorities, and left much of the Strip's population homeless.
Accountability for killing of over 500 Palestinians
Earlier this month, Turk renewed his call to end the escalating deadly Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank since October 7.
In a press release published by the OHCHR, he urged accountability for the killing of over 500 Palestinians perpetrated by Israeli occupation forces and settlers.
The statement comes shortly after Israeli occupation forces fatally shot 16-year-old Ahmed Ashraf Hamidat and critically injured 17-year-old Mohammed Musa al-Bitar near the Aqabat Jaber refugee camp in Areeha. al-Bitar succumbed to his injuries the next day.
Their murder, along with the killing of four more Palestinians by the IOF on June 3rd, brought the Palestinian death toll since October 7 to 505, according to the UN Human Rights Office.
Israeli forces raid 9 towns, cities across the West Bank
On Monday, Israeli occupation forces raided, once again, several towns across the occupied West Bank, in occupied Palestine, vandalizing residents' homes and arresting several people.
In Qalqilya, Palestinian Resistance fighters affiliated with al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades successfully repelled the Israeli incursion into the city, which lies on the separation wall between the West Bank and the Israeli-occupied '48 territories.
A large Israeli force, which included armored utility vehicles and other military-grade vehicles, stormed Qalqiliya in an extensive raid that targeted several neighborhoods in the city.
Occupation forces raided commercial shops and residential buildings, ransacked several homes, and assaulted Palestinians. Concurrently, Israeli occupation forces raided the towns of Urif, Aqraba, Qibya, Artas, al-Shuyukh, Idhna, Anata, and the Aqbat Jabr refugee camp.
