The UN rights chief on Wednesday rejected as “unlawful” proposals for the annexation of or forced transfer from Palestinian territories, warning they posed a threat to the entire region.
“We must resist any normalization of unlawful conduct, including proposals for annexation or forced transfer,” Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council.
Such proposals “could threaten the peace and security of Palestinians and Israelis, and of the wider region,” he warned, insisting that “this is the moment for voices of reason to prevail.”
Turk did not give details, but there have been rising levels of violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and calls for annexation after Israel announced expanded military operations there.
US President Donald Trump has proposed a mass population transfer for Gazans.
He has floated the idea of a US takeover of Gaza, under which its Palestinian population would be relocated. His proposal has infuriated the Arab world, which has promised an alternative plan to rebuild Gaza without displacing its residents.
Trump later appeared to soften his plan, saying he was only recommending the idea, and that the leaders of Jordan and Egypt had rejected any effort to move Palestinians to their countries against their will.
The US president’s official social media accounts on Wednesday posted an apparently AI-generated video depicting Gaza rebuilt into a seaside resort, replete with a towering golden statue of Trump himself.
Turk said Wednesday that “we urgently need to end the conflict.”
“Israel’s means and methods of warfare have caused staggering levels of casualties and destruction, raising concerns over the commission of war crimes and other possible atrocity crimes,” he said.
He raised “serious doubts” about the Israeli justice system’s ability to deliver justice, “notably in relation to the unlawful killing of Palestinians in Gaza or in the 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.
Turk also noted that “Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have taken, held, and tortured hostages in Gaza, and have indiscriminately fired projectiles into Israeli territory, amounting to war crimes.”
To his knowledge, none of these groups had taken measures to punish those responsible, he said, adding that such “impunity begets more violence.”
So too did “delegitimizing and threatening international institutions that are there to serve people and uphold international law also harms us all,” he warned.
All violations and abuses need to be investigated independently, he said.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 63 hostages, including 62 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7. They include the bodies of at least 36 confirmed dead by the IDF.
While Turk mentioned no names, earlier this month, Washington sanctioned chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court Karim Khan over the ICC’s investigations targeting US personnel, as well as alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
Khan was responsible for the request that led the ICC to issue arrest warrants late last year for Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of The Hague-based court and denies war crimes. The United States, Israel’s main ally, is also not a member of the ICC, and Washington has criticized the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.