UN Sounds Alarm Over Escalating Israeli Attacks on Palestinians

(MENAFN) On Monday, the United Nations warned that increasing attacks by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank are placing "systematic pressure" on Palestinians to abandon their homes and communities, with humanitarian officials recording a troubling surge in incidents.

Referencing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told a news conference that "airstrikes and shelling hit residential areas in Gaza, as well as a fatal shooting by Israeli forces and other attacks by settlers in the West Bank" over the past weekend.

Dujarric highlighted a separate incident in the southern West Bank early Monday, where Israeli forces set fire to two vehicles, "where neighbors managed to extinguish the fire and save the family."

"Such incidents have become frequent, and they put systematic pressure on Palestinians to leave their homes and their communities," he emphasized.

He also warned that these attacks "result in fatalities, injuries, damage and displacement, deepening humanitarian needs," and stressed: "Perpetrators of these unlawful attacks must be held to account."

Attacks in the West Bank have surged in recent weeks, with eight Palestinians reportedly killed by Israeli gunfire since late February, as noted by reports from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.

Approximately 750,000 Israeli settlers live in hundreds of settlements across the West Bank, including roughly 250,000 in East Jerusalem. Rights groups say these settlers frequently attack Palestinians in efforts to force them from their land.

Violence across the West Bank has escalated since the outbreak of war in Gaza in October 2023, including killings, property demolitions, forced displacement, and settlement expansion.

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