The European Union’s overseas coverage chief Josep Borrell warned that Israel’s ongoing assaults within the occupied West Bank since Oct. 7 purpose to show the Palestinian territory into “a new Gaza.”
Violence within the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967 and is separated from the Gaza Strip by Israeli territory, has flared alongside the Oct. 7 assaults.
Borrell mentioned Israel was opening “a new front… with a clear objective: to turn the West Bank into a new Gaza – in rising violence, delegitimizing the Palestinian Authority and stimulating provocations to react forcefully.”
Israel was additionally “not shying away from saying to the face of the world that the only way to reach a peaceful settlement is to annex the West Bank and Gaza,” Borrell added at a ministerial assembly of the Arab League in Cairo.
He accused “radical members of the Israeli government” of making an attempt to make it “impossible to create a future Palestinian state,” which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a number of other cupboard members have painted as a risk to Israel.
Some Israeli ministers have not too long ago referred to as to extend army assaults within the West Bank.
“Without action, the West Bank will become a new Gaza,” Borrell mentioned.
“And Gaza will become a new West Bank, as settlers’ movements are preparing new settlements,” he advised the assembly.
“The international community deplores, feels, and condemns, but finds it hard to act.”
Israeli settler assaults in opposition to Palestinians within the West Bank hit a report in 2023, in accordance with Israeli rights group Yesh Din, and the European Union has mentioned final 12 months noticed probably the most settlement constructing permits issued in a long time.
Some 490,000 Israelis dwell within the West Bank, in settlements which might be unlawful beneath worldwide regulation, alongside three million Palestinians.
Since Oct. 7, Israeli troops or settlers have killed no less than 662 Palestinians within the West Bank, in accordance with the Palestinian well being ministry.
At least 23 Israelis, together with members of the safety forces, have been killed in Palestinian assaults within the West Bank throughout the identical interval, Israeli officers say.
On Tuesday, Israel’s army mentioned it was “highly likely” that its forces “unintentionally” shot useless a U.S.-Turkish activist final week, throughout a protest within the West Bank in opposition to settlement growth, however others, together with the U.N., have referred to as for an impartial investigation into the killing.
Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a twin U.S. and Turkish nationwide, was fatally shot by Israeli forces final Friday throughout a protest in opposition to unlawful Israeli settlements in Beita, a city simply exterior the town of Nablus.
Witnesses reported that Israeli troopers opened dwell fireplace on demonstrators. Though she was standing away from the primary protest space, she was fatally shot within the head. Despite being rushed to a hospital, medical employees have been unable to save lots of her.
She arrived within the West Bank final Tuesday to volunteer as a part of an effort to assist and safeguard Palestinian farmers, with the International Solidarity Movement, the identical group as legendary peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was murdered by Israel as she tried to cease the demolition of a Palestinian home in Gaza in 2003.
A Palestinian eyewitness mentioned that the Israeli sniper who killed Eygi “cried out for joy” after capturing her whereas an Israeli activist who was there for the protests that day mentioned: “The soldier who did this took a kill shot. That kill shot was no remoted incident.”
Eygi’s killing echoes the case of American-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed equally in 2022.
Shamdasani mentioned Eygi grew to become a “image of the systematic use of lethal drive in opposition to peaceable protestors and different Palestinians within the West Bank.”
The U.N. Human Rights Office insists that Israel first examine the homicide and all the opposite illegal killings, Shamdasani mentioned, including that if Israeli fails to guide a reputable investigation, the U.N. would insist on a global impartial investigation into the violations allowed to happen in Palestinian territories.
The Palestinian teams thought-about Eygi’s loss of life as a affirmation of Israel’s implementation of the insurance policies of killing, expulsion, and ban of entry for worldwide solidarity activists.
Source: www.dailysabah.com