Gaza - New York: Europe and the Arabs
Before the UN Security Council, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator said that "our worst fears were realized" overnight in Gaza, as airstrikes resumed across the Strip, with "unconfirmed reports of hundreds of people killed and new evacuation orders issued by Israeli forces," according to the UN Daily News.
He added that the people of Gaza are "once again living in extreme fear." Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher was speaking at a Security Council meeting—previously scheduled at the request of Algeria and Somalia—to discuss the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.
In addition to the 15 Security Council members, representatives from Palestine, Israel, and the Arab League also spoke.
In his video briefing on Tuesday, Fletcher said that the modest gains achieved during the ceasefire were being destroyed, adding that humanitarian workers had proven that when they were allowed, "we can deliver assistance on a massive scale—that's no longer the case." He noted that Israeli authorities have cut off the entry of all life-saving supplies to 2.1 million people since March 2. He said, "Our repeated requests to collect the stagnant aid at the Kerem Shalom crossing have been systematically rejected. Food is spoiling and medicines are about to expire."
In the same context, a new report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights showed that the Israeli government "escalated settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, over the past year, transferring its population to these territories and unlawfully demolishing Palestinian homes, amidst rampant settler violence and ongoing impunity."
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said, "Israel's settlement policy, its annexation actions, and related discriminatory legislation and measures violate international law, as affirmed by the International Court of Justice, and also violate the right of Palestinians to self-determination." "Israel must immediately and completely cease all settlement activity, evacuate all settlers, halt the forcible transfer of Palestinian residents, and prevent and punish attacks by both security forces and settlers," Türk added.
The report explained that the ongoing transfer of Israeli government authority over the occupied Palestinian territory from the military to the government facilitates the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the progressive integration of the occupied West Bank into the State of Israel.
The report, released Tuesday, covers the period from November 1, 2023, to October 31, 2024, and details in detail the massive expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
It reported that steps have been taken to implement plans to build more than 20,000 housing units in new or existing Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem alone, according to Israeli NGOs, while 214 Palestinian properties and structures have been demolished in East Jerusalem. According to the report, more than 10,300 housing units are being built within existing Israeli settlements in the rest of the West Bank, and 49 new Israeli outposts have been established, an unprecedented number.
The report stated that settlers and the military have paved dozens of unauthorized roads around settlements and outposts to help connect them, while impeding Palestinian movement and enabling the seizure of more Palestinian land.
The report stated that plans to intensify the provision of Israeli government services in settlements "further institutionalize long-standing patterns of systematic discrimination, racial segregation, oppression, control, violence, and other inhumane acts against the Palestinian people."
It pointed to a "climate of revenge" and violence prevalent throughout the West Bank. During the reporting period, Israeli settlers and Israeli security forces killed 612 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Twenty-four Israelis were also killed in alleged attacks or clashes with Palestinians. The report explained that the current climate has enabled Israeli settlers to attack Palestinians, forcing them from their homes and seizing their land. It added that the line between settler violence and state violence has blurred, exacerbating violence and impunity, referring to steps taken by Israel to further militarize the settlement movement. This includes the recruitment of thousands of settlers into Israeli security forces operating in the West Bank.
The report also documents a monthly average of 118 incidents of settler violence, compared to 108 incidents in 2023, which was already a record year.
The OHCHR report stated that 1,779 Palestinian structures were demolished in the West Bank due to “lack of building permits,” which are virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain, forcibly displacing 4,527 people.
The number of Palestinians forcibly displaced by demolitions increased by nearly 200 percent compared to the previous reporting period. "Israel's transfer of large parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies amounts to a war crime," the High Commissioner said, urging the international community to take meaningful action regarding Israel's settlement expansion in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Türk added: "Israel must abide by the International Court of Justice ruling by immediately halting all new settlement activity, evacuating all settlers from the occupied Palestinian territory, and providing reparations for damages caused by decades of illegal settlement activity."