Israel’s policy toward the West Bank is dooming any prospect of a two-state solution with the Palestinians, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday.
Violence and arrests have soared in the territory since the Gaza war erupted over Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Through administrative and legal steps, Israel is changing the geography of the West Bank, Guterres said in a statement read by his chief of staff, Courtenay Rattray, during a meeting of the Security Council.
Settlement expansion is expected to speed up due to big land seizures in strategic areas and changes to planning, land management and governance, Guterres added.
“Recent developments are driving a stake through the heart of any prospect for a two-state solution,” said the UN chief.
He said Israel is taking steps to extend sovereignty over the West Bank.
Guterres said Israel has taken punitive steps against the Palestinian Authority and legalized five Israeli outposts in the West Bank.
Israelis have built such outposts in the West Bank since 1967.
“We must change course. All settlement activity must cease immediately,” Guterres said.
He said Israeli settlements are a flagrant violation of international law and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.
The International Court of Justice is set to deliver an advisory, non-binding opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s “occupation of Palestinian territories” on July 19. While Israel has ignored such opinions in the past, the ICJ ruling on Friday could add political pressure over the nine-month-old war against Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Guterres also repeated his call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza war and the release of all hostages.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is a moral stain on us all,” Guterres said.
The war began with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The terrorists also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza, including 42 the Israeli military says are dead.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 38,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 combatants in battle and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.
Since October 7, troops have arrested some 4,400 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,850 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 560 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were killed in clashes with gunmen during raids or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 22 Israelis, including security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another five members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.