New York [US], March 9: According to Mr. Turk, this risks eliminating any prospect of establishing a Palestinian state , Reuters reported.
Specifically, in the report published on March 8, Mr. Turk said there had been a clear acceleration in the construction of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank , as the country continued to attack the Gaza Strip. It is expected that this document will be presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva (Switzerland) at the end of March.
According to him, the expansion of settlements means Israel is moving civilians into occupied territories. He said that this "constitutes a war crime and may subject those involved to criminal liability".
He said Israel's plan to build an additional 3,476 homes in areas including Maale Adumim, Efrat and Kedar in the West Bank was "against international law ".
Spain shares the above view. On March 8, the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs "strongly condemned" the settlements, which "undermine efforts to achieve a two-state solution and are an obstacle to peace ," AFP reported.
Israel occupied the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. According to international law, it is illegal for Israel to establish settlements in Palestinian territories.
Despite foreign opposition, Israel in recent decades has built dozens of settlements across the West Bank. Currently, this place is home to more than 490,000 illegal Israeli settlers, along with about 3 million Palestinians.
Israel approved construction of the new homes less than two weeks after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said any settlement expansion would be "counterproductive to achieving lasting peace" with the Israelis. Palestine.
From November 1, 2022 to October 31, 2023, approximately 24,300 housing units were added to existing Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The UN human rights office said the statistics marked the largest number recorded since monitoring began in 2017.
Concerns about violence were also raised by Mr. Turk. His report points out that many Palestinians were attacked by settlers, forcing them to leave their homes. In addition, Israel is also accused of destroying Palestinian homes and restricting the movement of these people.
The report shows that there have been 602 settler attacks against Palestinians since October 7, 2023, when the Hamas-Israel conflict broke out in the Gaza Strip. The United Nations also said it had recorded nine Palestinians killed by West Bank settlers with guns and another 396 people killed by Israeli security forces.
In response, the Israeli delegation in Geneva said Mr. Turk "once again completely ignored the deaths of 36 Israelis, including women, children and a tourist, and 296 people injured as a result of the 'terrorist incident'." of the Palestinian people in 2023, before and after October 7, 2023".
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
