JABAR EKSPRES – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Friday urged Israel to immediately end violence in the occupied West Bank.
“Israel must urgently reorganize its policies and actions in the occupied West Bank in line with international human rights standards, including protecting and respecting the right to life,” Turk said in a statement.
“For this violence to end, the occupation must end,” he said.
He added that people with political power should take immediate steps to make that happen.
Turk warned that this week’s violence in the West Bank “risks spiraling out of control, fueled by sharp political rhetoric and an escalation of Israel’s use of sophisticated military weapons”.
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“The recent killings and violence, together with incendiary rhetoric, only push Israelis and Palestinians to the brink,” he said.
Israeli security forces carried out an airstrike on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Monday.
The incident killed at least seven Palestinians, including a boy and a girl, and wounded 91 others and seven Israeli soldiers, according to a UN statement.
In the latest incident on Wednesday, settlers protected by Israeli forces carried out a brutal attack in the central West Bank Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya, killing one Palestinian and injuring dozens more, while 30 homes, 60 cars and dozens of olive trees were burned.
Tensions have continued to rise in the West Bank in recent months amid a wave of Israeli attacks on Palestinian towns.
Nearly 180 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the year, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. At least 25 Israelis have also been killed in separate attacks over the same period.
Around 700,000 settlers are estimated to live in 164 settlements and 116 border areas in the West Bank.
