Expansion of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory is war crime: UN

The UN rights director warns that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory have grown to unprecedented proportions and run the risk of eliminating any realistic chance of a Palestinian state.  

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Friday that the expansion of Israeli settlements amounts to Israel transferring its own civilian population into occupied regions, which is illegal under international law. 

Israeli settlements have long been seen by the international world as an infringement on international law and a barrier to the establishment of Palestinian independence.  

The settlements were deemed "inconsistent" with international law by the US last month, following Israel's announcement of fresh housing plans in the occupied West Bank.  

According to Turk's study, the actions of the Israeli government "seem linked, to an unprecedented extent,  with the goals of the Israeli settler movement to expand long-term control over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to steadily integrate this occupied territory into the State of Israel”. 

“Settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian state,” Turk said in a statement that accompanied a 16-page report about the growth in illegal Israeli housing units. 

The report, based on the UN’s own monitoring as well as other sources, documented 24,300 new Israeli housing units in the occupied West Bank during a one-year period through to the end of October, which it said was the highest since monitoring began in 2017. 

It also said there had been a dramatic increase in the intensity, severity and regularity of both Israeli settler and state violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, particularly since Hamas’s October 7 attacks on southern Israel, which triggered the current war in the Gaza Strip. 

Since then, more than 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces or by settlers, the report said. 

It additionally pointed to forced evictions, non-issuance of building permits, home demolitions and restrictions on movement imposed on Palestinians. 

Sanctions against Israeli settlers have been placed by the US, UK, and France in response to their recent acts of violence and incitement against Palestinians residing in the West Bank. 

Israel grants approval for more settlements 

Nearly 3,500 new housing units in occupied Palestinian territory were approved by Israel's settlement-planning department on Wednesday. This is the first time that such approvals have been granted since Israel's war on Gaza started last year. Many nations, including Israel's friends, strongly condemned the approval. 

According to Turk, Israeli plans to construct settler homes in Maale Adumim, Efrat, and Kedar were "in the face of international law."  

Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the settlements were unilateral and illegal measures that violate international law while Qatar said such moves “pose a serious threat to international efforts aimed at implementing the two-state solution and hinder the resumption of the peace process”. 

Germany asked Israel to withdraw the plans, which it called “a serious violation of international law”. 

“The enemies try to harm and weaken us, but we will continue to build and be built up in this land,” far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X. 

Smotrich said the construction adds to the 18,515 housing units in illegal settlements approved in the past year. 

The UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, said all settlements were “illegal under international law” and a “driver of conflict” in the West Bank. 

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain two Arab nations that normalised relations with Israel as part of the US-mediated Abraham Accords also condemned Israel’s plans. 

Israel started building settlements after capturing the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six-Day War. It is illegal under international law for Israel to establish settlements in these Palestinian territories.