GENEVA: The Zionist entity must evacuate all settlers from the West Bank and make reparations for decades of illegal settlement, the UN rights chief said Tuesday, describing the policy as “a war crime”. “The transfer by (the Zionist entity) of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies amounts to a war crime,” Volker Turk said in a statement.

“(The Zionist entity) must immediately and completely cease all settlement activities and evacuate all settlers, stop the forcible transfer of the Palestinian population, and prevent and punish attacks by its security forces and settlers.” Violence in the West Bank, which has been occupied by the Zionist entity since 1967, has escalated since the start of the war in Gaza.

“(The Zionist entity’s) settlement policy, its acts of annexation, and related discriminatory legislation and measures are in breach of international law, as the International Court of Justice has confirmed, and violate Palestinians’ right to self-determination,” Turk said. His comments came as his office released a new report on the situation in the West Bank between October 2023 and last November.

That timeline concludes before the Zionist military began conducting a sweeping offensive across multiple areas of the West Bank on Jan 21, two

days after a fragile ceasefire took effect in the Gaza Strip. The operation, dubbed “Iron Wall”, has resulted in dozens of deaths, including Palestinian children, according to the UN.

Before that operation began, the UN rights office found that a total of 612 Palestinians were killed by Zionist security forces and settlers in the West Bank during the period covered by its report, amid “a climate of revenge”. The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah has put the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank between Oct 7, 2023 and March 14 at 911.

Tuesday’s report detailed “significant expansion of (Zionist) settlements” in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, during the first year of the war in neighboring Gaza. “Steps have been taken towards implementing plans to construct over 20,000 housing units in new or existing (Zionist) settlements in East Jerusalem alone,” the rights office said, citing Zionist non-governmental organizations.

“Over 10,300 units within existing (Zionist) settlements in the rest of the West Bank are in the pipeline and an unprecedented 49 new (Zionist) outposts have been established,” it said. “Dozens of unauthorized roads have been paved by settlers and the army around settlements and outposts, helping to connect them while blocking Palestinians’ movement and enabling further seizure of their land,” the report said. “The line between settler and state violence [has] blurred to a vanishing point, further enabling an increase in violence and impunity.”

The report denounced steps taken by the Zionist entity to further militarize the settler movement, pointing among other things to the enlistment of thousands of settlers into Zionist security forces operating in the West Bank. During the period covered by the report, the rights office found that a full 1,779 Palestinian structures were demolished in the West Bank due to a “lack of building permits”, which are almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain. This led to the forcible displacement of 4,527 people, the report said.

“(The Zionist entity) must abide by the International Court of Justice’s ruling and cease immediately all new settlement activities,” Turk said, demanding that the country “evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory and make reparations for the damage caused by decades of illegal settlement”. – AFP