Israeli forces using 'unwarranted lethal force' in West Bank, says humanitarian group

A major international humanitarian organization says Israeli military forces are engaging in “unwarranted use of lethal force” against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said in a statement on Friday that the first half of the current year saw a serious escalation of violence and rights violations in the Palestinian territory, noting that more than 1,000 people were forcibly displaced and almost 160,000 negatively impacted by demolitions.

Israeli forces and settlers killed 228 Palestinians, among them 58 children, from January to June 2024, according to the NRC, a jump of 65 percent on the same window last year.

“The data indicates that Israeli forces are deploying unwarranted use of lethal force against Palestinian civilians,” NRC country director in Palestine Ana Povrzenic said in a press release.

“We cannot separate the worsening conditions in the West Bank from the actions of senior Israeli officials aimed to establish sovereignty over the West Bank, in violation of international law,” she emphasized.

Israel demolishes Palestinian buildings in occupied West Bank

Bulldozers, tightly guarded by the regime’s soldiers, intruded into a neighborhood in the city of al-Khalil.

Moreover, NRC said Israel's “unlawful demolition” of Palestinian property had “reached unprecedented levels,” adding that by June 30, 643 structures had been destroyed, a 42 percent rise on the same period last year.

“In most of these cases, Israel reports the structures lack Israeli-issued building permits, which are virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain,” NRC said.

Settler attacks have also risen to 649 incidents recorded in the first half of this year, up on 598 in 2023.

“While some states have imposed sanctions against individual violent settlers, this has had limited impact in reducing rates of violence,” Povrzenic said.

She stressed that states must do more to hold Israel, including its central and local administrations, and military forces, accountable for severe violations of international law.

Israeli military raids in occupied West Bank tripled since October 7

The remarks come as a recent report has revealed that the number of Israeli military raids on Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank has increased by threefold ever since the occupying Tel Aviv regime waged its bloody onslaught in Gaza.

Palestinian sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said undercover Israeli special forces abducted former detainee Muhammad Shabaro during a raid in the Old City of Nablus.

Israel has abducted 9,600 Palestinians in West Bank since October: Rights groups

The figure includes 325 women, 670 children and 88 journalists.

Since Israel unleashed a war on the besieged Gaza Strip in early October 2023, casualties have been rising in the West Bank as a result of intensified near-daily Israeli raids into villages and cities in the occupied territories.

More than 550 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or extremist Jewish settlers since the war began. Over 9,300 Palestinians have been detained as well.

At least 38,919 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have also been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip over the past eight months during the regime’s genocidal war.

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