UN human rights experts on Friday condemned Israel's deadly raid in the occupied West Bank and urged the international community to “ensure accountability”.
The group of experts, who do not officially represent the UN but are mandated to report their findings to the global body, called on the international community to take action to end the “relentless violence, abuses and impunity, and to start to pave the way to a better future for Palestinians and Israelis”.
“The international community cannot and should not tolerate what appears to reflect Israel’s deliberate policy and practice of using lethal force without regard for limits set by international law,” they said.
Israel on Thursday sent military forces into Jenin refugee camp in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. The military said the aim of mission was to arrest Islamic Jihad militants who were planning “major attacks” against Israeli civilians.
The experts' statement noted that the Israeli troops fired live ammunition, killing at least nine Palestinians, including one elderly woman and two children. More than 20 people were reportedly injured and four of them remain in critical condition.
The Palestinian Authority accused Israel of a “massacre” and later announced it had ended co-ordination with the country on security matters.
The UN experts also warned that the attacks in the West Bank continue an “alarming upward trend from 2022".
“Impunity continues to prevail,” they said.
The latest violence comes as Israel's new government, the most right wing in the country's history, looks to further entrench settlements in the West Bank and expand Israel's power in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The attacks on the Jenin camp on Thursday were reminiscent of those that occurred in 2002, when the Israeli military carried out a major operation during the violent Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada.
According to the UN experts, Israeli forces killed at least 52 Palestinians in 2002 and destroyed more than 400 homes, “rendering more than a quarter of the population homeless”.
They noted that none of “this violence has been accounted for”.
