NEW YORK CITY: The West Bank is nearing collapse and Israel is advancing a “de facto annexation” of the territory through the acceleration of settlement construction, mass displacements and record levels of settler violence, senior UN officials told the Security Council on Tuesday.
Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN’s deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said the crisis engulfing the occupied territory was being overshadowed by other events in the region even as it reaches a tipping point after decades of unresolved conflict.
“While the fragile ceasefire in Gaza and regional tensions consume much of the international community’s attention, the West Bank is at the breaking point,” he said, describing a pattern in which Palestinian communities are forcibly displaced from their villages before settlers move onto the vacated land.
Seventy-six Palestinians, including 18 children, have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank so far this year, and three Israelis have died in confrontations with Palestinians and an alleged ramming attack. About 127 Palestinian communities have faced full or partial displacement since January 2023, 47 of them wiped out entirely, which has affected more than 6,390 people.
