West Bank violence, annexation 'only getting worse': UN

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GENEVA: Two years after the International Court of Justice said Israel's occupation of the West Bank was unlawful, settler violence and territorial annexation is "only getting worse", the UN said on Wednesday (Jul 29).

The United Nations' human rights office said that with attacks by Israeli settlers and the creation of outposts "hitting an all-time high", countries had to act to end the occupation.

"We are alarmed by the Israeli government's announcement to further increase the number of settlements and outposts, and open calls by Israeli leaders for revenge and collective punishment against Palestinian communities, accompanied by threats to turn the West Bank into another Gaza," rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement.

In a sweeping, non-binding "advisory opinion" issued in July 2024, the UN's top court said that Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory was "illegal".

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The court in The Hague found that "Israel's continued presence in the Palestinian territories is illegal", ICJ presiding judge Nawaf Salam said.

Israel is "under the obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence as rapidly as possible", he said.

Violence has exploded in the West Bank since the Hamas attack in Israel on Oct 7, 2023, with near-daily attacks by Israeli settlers and regular raids on Palestinian villages.

Shamdasani said that since last Thursday, eight Palestinians, including a boy, as well as two members of the Israeli military had been killed in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.

"With attacks by Israeli settlers, and the creation of settlements and outposts, hitting an all-time high, third states must act urgently and in unison to halt the continuing killing and dispossession of the Palestinian people, and to bring an end to the Israeli occupation," she said.

The comments came after Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN's deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, warned the UN Security Council on Tuesday that the situation in the occupied West Bank was "rapidly deteriorating".

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