Expanding Israeli settlements a 'war crime' threaten creation of Palestinian state: UN

The U.N. human rights director stated on Friday that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory have grown to unprecedented proportions and run the risk of obliterating any realistic chance of a Palestinian state.

The expansion of Israeli settlements, according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, amounts to Israel transferring its own people, which he declared to be a war crime. Following Israel's announcement last month of new housing plans in the occupied West Bank, the U.S. Biden administration said that the settlements were "inconsistent" with international law.

"Settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian State," Turk said in a statement that accompanied the 16-page report.

According to the report, which was based on the U.N.'s own monitoring as well as information from other sources, 24,300 additional Israeli housing units were built in the occupied West Bank in just one year, ending at the end of October 2023. This number was said to be the highest since monitoring started in 2017.

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Additionally, it stated that since the devastating Hamas strikes on Israel on October 7, there has been a sharp rise in the frequency, severity, and intensity of Israeli state and settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

A biblical birthright is asserted by Israel over the territory where settlers are spreading. According to the military, it is pursuing suspected militants while carrying out counterterrorism operations in the West Bank.