The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report on Thursday detailing the “further and rapid deterioration” of human rights in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7.
The report stressed that escalating violence puts civilian populations at risk and urged Israel and other authorities to take necessary action to stem the violence. Specifically, the report mostly focused on Israeli military violence and mass arrests, settler violence and Israeli policies enabling them, and the forced displacement of Palestinian communities. “The violations documented in this report repeat the pattern and nature of violations reported in the past in the context of the long-standing Israeli occupation of the West Bank” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. “However, the intensity of the violence and repression is something that has not been seen in years….The dehumanization of Palestinians that characterizes many of the settlers’ actions is very disturbing and must cease immediately.”
The report notes that Israeli security forces (ISF) have killed 291 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, including 79 children and 3 men with disabilities. At least 105 deaths were recorded during ISF law enforcement operations that used airstrikes and military tactics in refugee camps and densely-populated areas. ISF has already killed a historically-high number of Palestinians in the West Bank in 2023, with 200 people being killed before October 7. That brings the 2023 total to nearly 500 people; ISF killed 151 Palestinians in the West Bank in 2022.
According to the report, Israeli settlers have escalated their violence in the region: there have been 254 settler attacks on Palestinians since October 7, an average of 6 per day. Over one third of these attacks included firearms and Israeli settlers have killed at least eight Palestinians. The report notes that the Israeli government has been supporting these settlers, with ISF reportedly distributing more than 8,000 army rifles to “settlement defense squads.” Despite hundreds of settlers being involved in violent attacks, only two are under arrest as of December 27. The UN has previously raised concern about settler violence and countries like the US and Belgium have imposed visa restrictions. Israel approved plans earlier this year for settlement expansion.
According to the report, attacks from ISF and settlers have had devastating consequences for Palestinians communities in the West Bank, accelerating the displacement that was already growing before October 7. Since October 7, settler and ISF violence has displaced at least 143 families from at least 15 herding communities across the West Bank, amounting to more than 1,000 people, including 338 children. The report further alleges that those who have not been displaced face extreme disruptions to their olive harvests and threats of violence including warnings of “another Nakba.” Faris Samara, a Palestinian villager in the West Bank, told ABC News that they fled their home because these threats had become unbearable: “They [Israeli settlers] said to us, ‘If you don’t leave, we will come in the night and shoot you all.’ We had no choice but to leave.”
The report also included details about Israel’s use of mass and arbitrary arrest, saying that ISF has carried out daily mass arrests and detained 4,785 Palestinians since October 7. Six people have died in custody. Human rights groups like Amnesty International and B’Tselem have previously condemned this use of administrative detention. The report also criticized the government of the State of Palestine for its use of violence and arbitrary arrest against Palestinian demonstrators.
The new UN report comes soon after Israel denied UN visa renewals, describing the organization’s response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, as a “disgrace.” Türk urged Israel to allow the UN entry so it can investigate human rights violations, including those committed by Hamas, similar to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor visit to Israel and Palestine earlier this month.
Israeli authorities characterize their operations in the West Bank as necessary to preempt terror attacks following the Hamas assault. International law experts have said the Hamas attacks amount to war crimes, and families of victims filed an ICC complaint alleging genocide. Human rights groups have accused Israel of war crimes over its response, which has killed more than 20,000 people in Gaza—again, mostly civilians—and escalated violence in the West Bank. Palestinian rights groups and President Mahmoud Abbas contend that Israel’s actions amount to genocide. International law and genocide scholars have expressed similar worries.
