(MENAFN) The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Friday condemned a sharp rise in attacks by Israeli settlers and related military measures in the occupied West Bank, cautioning that some actions may constitute war crimes.

“Images of mobs of masked Israeli settlers carrying out arson attacks in the occupied West Bank this week are abhorrent and reflect a wider pattern of increased violence against Palestinians,” Thameen Al-Kheetan said during a weekly briefing at the UN Office in Geneva.

Several incidents this week included attacks on a dairy factory, as well as the burning of delivery trucks and homes, resulting in multiple injuries.

UN officials reported that the violence has intensified amid Israeli authorities expanding home demolitions, property seizures, arrests, and movement restrictions. Al-Kheetan criticized the “unabated building of settlements and outposts and the forcible displacement and transfer of thousands of Palestinians by Israeli settlers and the military.” He warned that permanently displacing Palestinians “amounts to unlawful transfer, which is a war crime,” and added that moving Israeli civilians into occupied territory “also amounts to a war crime.”

The UN maintains that Israel’s sovereignty claims over the West Bank violate international law and undermine Palestinians’ right to self-determination. “The International Court of Justice has confirmed” this, Al-Kheetan noted.

According to UN data, October saw more than 260 attacks by illegal Israeli settlers, the highest monthly total since 2006. Since October 2023, at least 1,017 Palestinians, including 221 children, have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem by Israeli security forces or settlers, while 59 Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks or clashes. Recent victims include 13-year-old Aysam Jihad Labib Naser, who died from tear gas inhalation last month, and two 16-year-old boys shot dead on November 6.

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