UNITED NATIONS (National Times): Amid raging war in Gaza, Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank have increased substantially, a senior official with the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Wednesday. \u201cThe Israeli defence force (IDF) is acting as if there is an armed conflict in the West Bank,\u201d Ajith Sunghay, head of the OHCHR Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told UN News, a media website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the situation there was already very dire even before hostilities erupted in Gaza on Oct 7. Last year was the deadliest ever for Palestinians in the West Bank since the UN began keeping records in 2005, and there was also a spike in violations including settler violence, excessive use of force by the IDF, demolitions and evictions.
Demolitions were reported on Tuesday in the northern village of Furush Beit Dajan, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said on social media. Sunghay said that while global attention has been focused on Gaza, the intensity and frequency of violations increased in the West Bank. \u201cIf we talk about the number of people killed or injured, either because of these massive incursions by the IDF into the West Bank \u2013 particularly in Tulkarem, Jenin, Nablus; sometimes into Jericho and other parts as well \u2013 that spiked up,\u201d he said.
The number of people detained has also \u201cspiked up massively\u201d, reaching close to 9,000, he added. He noted that \u201cwhatever happens in Gaza has a massive impact on the West Bank,\u201d and vice versa, \u201cbecause they\u2019re the same people\u201d. \u201cWe now see huge fear among the population of the West Bank, as well, on a regular basis worried about incursions, worried about raids, worried about arrest and detention, worried about settler violence and, of course, with massive significant movement restrictions, that impacts their day-to-day life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS (National Times): Amid raging war in Gaza, Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank have increased substantially, a senior official with the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Wednesday. \u201cThe Israeli defence force (IDF) is acting as if there is an armed conflict in the West Bank,\u201d Ajith Sunghay, head […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n