NEW YORK (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The UN has voiced “severe concern” over the West Bank’s situation, saying that conditions have already escalated to an emergency level.
“It is no longer necessary to raise concerns about violence, a state of emergency, or transgressions of international humanitarian law and human rights law in the West Bank. However, we have already arrived at that point,” Ajith Sunghay, who leads the UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory, stated on the UN News website.
Israeli forces, he said, are “using so-called methods and means of warfare including heavy weapons such as fighter jets, and more recently tanks, and shoulder-fired missiles,” forcing 40,000 people out of the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas camps.
“People are being told to leave the camps in these areas as soon as possible, and that returning is not an option,” Sunghay added, citing testimony collected by the Human Rights Office. “If you read the Israeli ministers’ general message, it states that Palestinians will not be allowed to return for approximately a year.”
In addition, the director of the UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory mentioned “severe restrictions on the movement of people” and settler violence.
More than a month ago, the Israeli occupation army began the biggest and longest military assault in almost 20 years in the northern West Bank.
The occupation forces declared last Sunday that they had forced tens of thousands of Palestinians out of three camps for refugees in the northern West Bank, with no chance of them ever going back to their homes.
