Largest displacement since 1967 taking place in occupied West Bank, says UN
It said an Israeli military operation launched in the north of the occupied West Bank in January had forcibly displaced tens of thousands of people, raising concerns of ethnic cleansing.
The military operation "has been the longest since... the second Intifada", in the early 2000s, said Juliette Touma, spokesperson for Unrwa, 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.
The UN human rights office meanwhile warned that mass forced displacement by an occupation force could amount to ethnic cleansing.
Since the Israeli military launched its operation in January, dubbed "Iron Wall", rights office spokesperson Thameen al-Kheetan said that "about 30,000 Palestinians remain forcibly displaced" had been displaced from the northern West Bank.
Israeli security forces had during the same period issued demolition orders for about 1,400 homes in the northern West Bank, he said, describing the figures as "alarming".
He pointed out that Israeli demolitions had displaced 2,907 Palestinians across the West Bank since October 2023.
Another 2,400 Palestinians - nearly half of them children - had been displaced as a result of Israeli settler actions, he added, stating that the combined result was "emptying large parts of the West Bank of Palestinians".
"Permanently displacing the civilian population within occupied territory amounts to unlawful transfer," Kheetan said.
Kheetan said 757 attacks by Israeli settlers had been recorded in the West Bank during the first half of the year, a 13 percent increase on the same period last year.
The attacks injured 96 Palestinians in June alone, he told reporters, adding that this was the highest monthly injury toll of Palestinians from Israeli settler attacks in over two decades.
Since October 2023, at least 964 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, according to the UN.
During that same period, 53 Israelis have been killed in reported attacks by Palestinians or in armed confrontations - 35 of them in the West Bank and 18 in Israel.
Reporting by AFP
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