Rhino: Agencies – The UN human rights office on Tuesday called for an end to violence that it said has seen more than 500 Palestinians killed in the West Bank by Israeli security forces and Jewish settlers since the start of the war between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip.
The office said in a statement that Israel had used ‘unnecessary and disproportionate’ force in the occupied West Bank and condemned what it described as the systematic denial of medical aid.
The Israeli military has not yet responded to a request for comment on the UN statement.
UN human rights monitors have thoroughly examined 80 cases out of a total of 505 documented deaths of Palestinians in the West Bank since the 7 October attack that Israel says killed about 1,200 people and took some 250 hostages.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said the cases studied showed ‘continuing violations of international human rights law relating to the use of force by Israeli security forces through the unnecessary and disproportionate use of lethal force and an increase in apparently deliberate and planned killings.’
In the same period, 24 Israelis were killed in clashes or attacks carried out by Palestinians from the West Bank, the UN statement said.