The Israeli armed forces and illegal settlers have committed serious human rights violations in the West Bank since October 7, which caused at least 300 deaths (79 of them children) and included illegal arrests and mistreatment of detainees, a report denounced this Thursday. of the United Nations.

The document from the UN Human Rights Office demands that Israel “stop the use of military weapons in law enforcement operations in the West Bank, arbitrary detentions and mistreatment of Palestinians, by lifting discriminatory movement restrictions.” .

Of the 300 deaths according to the report, 291 died at the hands of the Israeli Security Forces, and the rest were murdered by settlers, although there is one case in which there are doubts about the authorship.

In that sense, the document reports that the settlers sometimes act accompanied by Israeli security forces or they themselves wear supposed uniforms of that body.

Just this Thursday, two Palestinians died in the occupied West Bank during separate incidents, the first in the morning during an Israeli Army operation and the second after being shot by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The report indicates that in the first weeks after the terrorist attacks of October 7, up to six daily incidents involving settlers were recorded, such as shootings, arson of houses and vehicles, and destruction of trees and crops.

“The UN Office documented multiple cases of settlers attacking Palestinians while harvesting their olives, forcing them off their land, stealing their harvest, and poisoning or vandalizing the olive trees,” the report said.

Humiliation and sexual violence

It also denounces that Israeli forces have detained more than 4,700 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including 40 journalists, and on many occasions subjected them to mistreatment. “Some were forced to strip naked, they were blindfolded and for hours they were restrained with handcuffs and their legs tied, while Israeli soldiers stepped on their heads or backs,” he said.

“They were spat on, pushed against walls, threatened, insulted, humiliated and in some cases were victims of sexual and gender violence,” the report added.

“The abuses documented in this report echo the patterns and nature of others in the past, in the context of Israel's long occupation of the West Bank, but the intensity of the current violence and repression has not been seen in years,” commented the senior UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk.

“I call on Israel to take immediate, clear and effective measures to end settler violence against the Palestinian population, to investigate incidents by settlers and Israeli forces, and to ensure the protection of Palestinian communities against any form of of forced displacement,” he added.

The Austrian high commissioner also urged Israel to allow his office access to the country, assuring that he was willing to prepare similar reports on the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians on October 7, which were the trigger for the current conflict.

A “ridiculous” report

For his part, Tal Heinrich, spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, said Thursday that the report is “quite ridiculous.”. The document, he added, shows facts that the Israeli Government knows, such as that “the Palestinians are arming” teenagers to confront the Israeli Army.

The spokesperson criticized that the document does not take into account the threats faced by Israeli forces in areas of the occupied West Bank such as Judea and Samaria, where they act to “keep that front as calm as possible.”

Heinrich added that the Islamist group Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have strongholds there, which he blamed for the disruption to the daily lives of Palestinians caused by the Israeli Army's controls. Regarding the settlers, he assured that attacks on Palestinians show “a significant decrease in an almost marginal phenomenon.”

He also commented that the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has reiterated that no one can take justice into their own hands and those who violate the law regardless of their religious or political beliefs will be prosecuted.