UN Special Rapporteurs Makarim Wibisono and Christof Heyns [official profiles] expressed concern [press release] Monday over ongoing violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and Israel. This latest phase of conflict began in October [UN report] and has claimed an estimated 15 Israeli and 80 Palestinian lives, with more casualties reported over the weekend [Reuters report]. Although International law allows deadly force only as a last measure to protect human life, experts report a pattern of excessive force used by Israeli forces when apprehending Palestinians suspected of carrying out individual attacks on Israelis. Both rapporteurs, as independent experts on human rights, agreed that the violence is a result of long-standing tension, and they noted: “[t]he current escalation of violence … is occurring within the existing context of policies and practices under the longstanding Israeli occupation which entail violations of Palestinian human rights and raise tensions.” The rate of conflict is especially high the city of Hebron [BBC report], located in the West-Bank, where settlers and Palestinians live particularly close.

The Palestine-Israel conflict is a core part of the wider Arab-Israeli conflicts. Although the history between the groups is long and diverse, the roots of current conflicts can be traced to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. In contemporary news, Palestinian officials presented documents to the International Criminal Court in October alleging Israeli war crimes [JURIST report]. After the meeting, the Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki informed [Centre for Research on Globalization report] the press that the documents contain evidence of “extrajudicial killing, home demolition, [and] collective punishment” by Israeli troops. Later that Wibisono expressed [press release] “grave concern” over the intensification of violence [JURIST report] across OPT. In his statement he urged Israel to “exercise restraint and to recognise that all, including Palestinians, have equal right to respect for their human rights and their dignity.” In March the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released its 2014 Annual Humanitarian Overview, noting that Palestinian civilians continue to face daily threats [JURIST report] to their physical safety and liberty, with 2014 holding the highest civilian death toll in the conflict since the annexation of the Palestinian territories in 1967.