Report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights points to more than 36,000 displaced people and warns of the risk of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Palestinian territory
A HIM made an appeal this Tuesday (17) to Israel to immediately halt settlement expansion in the West Bankwhich caused the forced displacement of more than 36,000 Palestinians in one year, generating fears of “ethnic cleansing”.
According to a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which covers the period from November 2024 to October 2025, “the displacement of more than 36,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank constitutes a mass expulsion of Palestinians of unprecedented magnitude“.
The OHCHR highlights that “the displacements in the occupied West Bank, which coincide with the mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza (…) appear to indicate a concerted Israeli policy of mass forced transfer” in the occupied territories, which generates “concerns about ethnic cleansing”.
On February 19, the High Commission expressed fear of “ethnic cleansing” in the occupied Palestinian territories, pointing to a series of Israeli actions with “the intensification of attacks, the methodical destruction of entire neighborhoods, the refusal to provide humanitarian aid and forced transfers.”
The report records, in the period analyzed, the “advance or approval, by the Israeli authorities, of 36,973 housing units in settlements in occupied East Jerusalemand 27,200 in the rest of the West Bank.”
More than 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, not counting East Jerusalem, among almost three million Palestinians, in settlements that the UN considers illegal under international law.
Violence in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 has skyrocketed since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip, and continued despite the ceasefire in force in Gaza since October 10.
In its report, the OHCHR records 1,732 incidents of violence committed by settlers that caused victims or material damage, compared to 1,400 in the previous period, from November 2023 to October 2024.
“Settler violence continued in a coordinated, strategic and largely unpunished manner, with a central role played by Israeli authorities,” the report states.
The “illegal transfer” of Palestinians “constitutes a war crime”, says the OHCHR, and “in certain circumstances” such acts can “resemble a crime against humanity”.
The head of the OHCHR, Austrian Volker Türk, called on Israel to “immediately and completely cease the creation and expansion of settlements, withdraw all settlers and end the occupation” of the Palestinian territories.
He also demanded that Israel “Allow the return of displaced Palestinians and end all practices of land confiscation, forced evictions and house demolitions.”
The report also highlights the greater risk of displacement to which thousands of Palestinians belonging to Bedouin communities located northeast of East Jerusalem are exposed due to the advancement of colonization projects in the region.
*AFP
