The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said on Sunday that Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank has reached “record levels.”
In a statement, Lazzarini added that what is happening in the West Bank is “a silent war that has not received adequate coverage.”
He continued: “Record levels of violence have been witnessed in the occupied West Bank since October 2023, with more than 1,000 Palestinians killed, nearly a quarter of whom were children.”
Since the start of the war of annihilation in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, Israel, through its army and settlers, has intensified its crimes in the West Bank, including killings, house demolitions, displacement of Palestinians, and settlement expansion.
This escalation, which has lasted for more than two years, has resulted in the deaths of 1,110 Palestinians, injuries to approximately 11,500 others, and the arrest of more than 21,000.
Israeli settler attacks continue unabated, while Palestinian communities are constantly subjected to intimidation, displacement from their lands, and the destruction of their livelihoods, all with impunity,” Lazzarini said.
Approximately 770,000 Israeli settlers reside in hundreds of settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank, including 250,000 in East Jerusalem. They perpetrate daily attacks against Palestinian citizens with the aim of forcibly displacing them.
Lazzarini continued, “Tens of thousands remain displaced a year after Israel launched Operation Iron Wall, the largest displacement operation since 1967, and their homes are now being gradually demolished to prevent their return.”
He added, “While the world’s attention has been focused on Gaza, the blatant disregard for international humanitarian law in the West Bank has become commonplace.”
