2 hr 3 min ago
West Bank Palestinians face increasing restrictions and settler violence as Gaza war escalates
From CNN's Ivana Kottasová and Adi Koplewitz
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After Hamas launched its terror attack on Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people and kidnapping some 240 others, Israel stepped up its security measures and began severely restricting the freedom of movement of Palestinian residents of the West Bank.
CNN has asked Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) for comment on the increased restrictions, but has not received a response.
Israel controls all entry and exit points to the West Bank through roadblocks and checkpoints which are staffed by soldiers and armed police. The security forces have always had the ability to close these checkpoints without warning but, since October 7, the closures have been more frequent and have lasted longer, residents and human rights watchdogs say.
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As part of the Oslo Accords, Israel agreed to gradually transfer control over the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority, but that has not happened. Instead, dozens of Israeli settlements have been built in the West Bank, encroaching into land that Palestinians, along with the international community, view as territory for a future Palestinian state.
Approximately 500,000 Israeli Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank, according to Peace Now, an Israeli group that advocates for peace and monitors settlements. Many of these settlements are heavily guarded, fenced-off areas that are completely off limits to Palestinians.
Most of the world considers these settlements illegal under international law and Israel has been criticized for allowing their expansion – and, in some cases, supporting them with tax breaks and state-funded security. Israel
views the West Bank as “disputed territory,” and contends its settlement policy is legal.
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The areas around these settlements have always been prone to violence, but the
situation has worsened in recent months.
More than 170 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah. That’s more than were killed across the whole of 2022 by Israeli forces, according to UN figures.
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The spiralling violence has prompted international outcry, including from Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights.
“I appeal as a matter of urgency for Israeli authorities to take immediate measures to take steps to ensure the protection of Palestinians in the West Bank who are being on a daily basis subjected to violence from Israeli forces and settlers, ill treatment, arrests, evictions, intimidation and humiliation,” Turk said.
According to the UN, since October 7, nearly 1,000 Palestinians from at least 15 herding communities have been forced from their homes by settlers.
“In the context of the coercive environment they live in, the displacement of these communities may amount to the forcible transfer of the population, which is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention,” Turk said, adding: “Continued, widespread impunity for such violations is unacceptable, dangerous and it is in clear violation of Israel’s obligation under international human rights law.”
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