UN rights chief calls on states to challenge Israel over occupation

Nearly 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials, since Israel unleashed a military campaign in response to cross-border attacks by Hamas fighters on Oct. 7, 2023 in which 1,200 people were killed and a further 250 taken hostage. The conflict has also fuelled a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“Ending that war and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said in a speech at the start of the five-week UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva.

“States must not – cannot – accept blatant disregard for international law, including binding decisions of the (UN) Security Council and orders of the International Court of Justice, neither in this nor any other situation,” he added.

He stated nearly 1.9 million people have been forcibly displaced across the Gaza Strip.

“While the actual number is likely higher, almost 10,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons or ad hoc military facilities, many arbitrarily, with over 50 people having died due to inhumane conditions and ill-treatment.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, the UN rights chief urged the international community to act on Israel’s “blatant disregard” for international law in the occupied Palestinian territories.

He cited an opinion released by the UN top court in July that called Israel’s occupation illegal and stressed that this situation must be “comprehensively addressed”.

Turk warned that “deadly and destructive” operations in the West Bank are at a scale “not witnessed in the last two decades”, and they are “worsening a calamitous situation” which is already aggravated by settler violence.

The remarks came as Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, including military raids and settler attacks, has soared since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip in October 2023.

Nearly 690 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank since the onset of the Gaza war, according to reports.

At least 23 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, Israeli officials say.