The UN chief voiced alarm Monday at rising violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and calls for annexation after Israel announced expanded military operations in the Palestinian territory.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said human rights are being “suffocated” around the world, lashing out at voices of division and anger who see them as a barrier to their quest for power and profit.
“I am gravely concerned by the rising violence in the occupied West Bank by Israeli settlers and other violations, as well as calls for annexation,” Guterres told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
His remarks came a day after Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to several buildings in a Bedouin village near Jaba, a Palestinian town in the central West Bank. Later two young Israelis were wounded after being attacked by Palestinians, also in the central West Bank.
Violence in the West Bank has surged since the start of the Gaza war that began with Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023, attack inside Israel that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The thousands of terrorists that Hamas led in the attack also abducted 251 people to Gaza as hostages.
Guterres on Monday stressed the importance of the fragile ceasefire in place in Gaza since January 19.
“We are witnessing a precarious ceasefire. We must avoid at all costs a resumption of hostilities. The people in Gaza have already suffered too much,” he said. “It’s time for a permanent ceasefire, the dignified release of all remaining hostages, irreversible progress towards a two-state solution, an end to the occupation, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with Gaza as an integral part.”
The military began a major raid against Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank’s north a month ago, just after the truce went into effect in the Gaza Strip, a separate Palestinian territory.
The West Bank offensive has gradually expanded, spanning multiple refugee camps near the cities of Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday he had instructed the IDF to stay for at least the next year in West Bank refugee camps that have been cleared of terror operatives and civilians, and not allow some 40,000 displaced Palestinians to return.
The same day, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana called for the annexation of the West Bank while on a tour of the northern part of the territory, saying that settlements are the only way for Israel to achieve peace.
Annexation of the territory that Palestinians want for a future state along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip has long been a fantasy of the Israeli right. However, the idea has become more tangible since US President Donald Trump took office and talked of emptying war-ravaged Gaza of its 2 million residents so that the US can take it over and turn it into a “riviera.”
Two weeks ago, at a White House press conference after meeting King Abdullah of Jordan, Trump was asked about backing West Bank annexation.
“That’s going to work out very well… work out automatically,” he responded. “It’s in good shape.”
“We discussed it, other people have discussed it with us and with me,” he continued. “The West Bank is going to work out very well.”
A week earlier, Trump said he’d be making an announcement regarding Israeli annexation of the West Bank in about four weeks.
In Geneva, Guterres also talked about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine among other things.
Guterres depicted a world where human rights were “on the ropes and being pummeled hard” by warmongers, a “morally bankrupt global financial system” that favors profits over planet protections, those who might exploit artificial intelligence to harm people, and leaders who seek to demonize migrants or restrict women’s rights.
Human rights, he said, “are being suffocated by autocrats, crushing opposition because they fear what the truly empowered people would do,” and “by voices of division and anger who view human rights not as a boon to humanity, but as a barrier to the power, profit and control they seek.”
The council meets three times a year and the session that opened Monday was set to run until April 4.