West Bank seeing largest displacement since 1967: UN

AFP | Geneva

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The UN warned yesterday that mass displacement in the West Bank had hit levels not seen since the start of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territory nearly 60 years ago.

The United Nations said an Israeli military operation launched in the north of the occupied territory in January had displaced tens of thousands of people, raising concerns about possible "ethnic cleansing".

The military operation "has been the longest since ... the second Intifada", in the early 2000s, said Juliette Touma, spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

"It is impacting several refugee camps in the area, and it is causing the largest population displacement of the Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967," she told reporters in Geneva via video from Jordan, referring to the sixday Arab-Israeli war that led to Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

The UN rights office meanwhile warned that mass forced displacement by an occupation force could amount to "ethnic cleansing".

Since Israel's military launched its operation "Iron Wall" in the north of the West Bank in January, rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan said that "about 30,000 Palestinians remain forcibly displaced".

Israeli security forces had during the same period issued demolition orders for about 1,400homes in the northern West Bank,he said, describing the figures as"alarming".

He pointed out that Israelidemolitions had displaced 2,907Palestinians across the West Banksince October 2023.

Another 2,400 Palestinians --nearly half of them children --had been displaced as a result ofIsraeli settler actions, he added,lamenting that the combined result was the "emptying large partsof the West Bank of Palestinians".

"Permanently displacing thecivilian population within occupied territory amounts to unlawful transfer," Kheetan said,stressing that depending on thecircumstances this could be "tantamount to ethnic cleansing" andcould "amount to a crime againsthumanity".

Kheetan said 757 attacks by Israeli settlers had been recordedin the West Bank during the firsthalf of the year, a 13% increase onthe same period in 2024.

The attacks injured 96 Palestinians in the occupied territoryin June alone, he told reporters,stressing that this was the highestmonthly injury toll of Palestiniansfrom settler attacks, "in over twodecades".

Violence in the West Bank hassurged since the October 2023attack on Israel by Palestinianmilitant group Hamas triggeredwar in the Gaza Strip.

Since then, at least 964 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including EastJerusalem, according to the UN.

During that same period, 53Israelis have been killed in reported attacks by Palestinians orin armed clashes -- 35 of them inthe West Bank and 18 in Israel.