UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk delivers a speech during the 52nd UN Human Rights Council session, in Geneva, on February 27, 2023. AFP
"Over half a century of occupation has led to widening dispossession, deepening deprivation and recurring and severe violations of their rights, including the right to life," Turk said during the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council.
"Nobody could wish to live this way – or imagine that forcing people into conditions of such desperation can lead to an enduring solution," he added.
Mr. Turk's remarks come amid a surge in West Bank violence. On Friday, Israeli troops carried out raids in Bayt Dajan village and the villages of Beita and Huwara near the city of Nablus.
Clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli occupation forces in different parts of the occupied West Bank while Jewish settlers attacks on Palestinian towns continue.
“I urge decision-makers and people on all sides to give effect to the recommendations of our reports and to step back from the precipice to which increasing extremism and violence have led,” said Volker Turk, after presenting the Council with his latest annual report on the situation.
Sunday’s violence has drawn condemnation from the international community. U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the shooting attack and the rampage “underscore the imperative to immediately de-escalate tensions in words and deeds.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he held the Israeli government responsible for “the terrorist acts carried out by settlers under the protection of the occupation forces.”
The death toll has further, and sharply, deteriorated in the first weeks of 2023, and in the month that has just ended, he warned. Since the start of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 65 Palestinian adults and children, including militants and civilians.
Thirteen Israeli adults and children, including members of the security forces and civilians, and one Ukrainian civilian have been killed over the same period, according to an AFP tally based on official sources from both sides. 131 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in 2022, according to UNHRC figures.
The upsurge in violence comes after last year saw the highest number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in 17 years, the UN rights chief stressed.
"I condemn the violence that has killed and harmed so many people on both sides, and which generates overwhelming despair," Turk added.
Many country representatives echoed Turk's concerns Friday, while Palestinian ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi took the rights council floor to urge the international community to take "punitive steps" against Israel.
The UN rights chief called on both sides to adhere to a commitment to de-escalation reached following talks Sunday in Jordan.
"In the near future, there must be an end to settlements in occupied land. And within a foreseeable horizon, there must be a two-state solution," Turk insisted.
"For this violence to end, the occupation must end. On all sides, there are people who know this."
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