UN Commissioner: There are fears that Israel will commit ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said there are concerns about “ethnic cleansing” being carried out by Israel against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

He made these remarks on Monday during the opening of the 61st session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

Türk added that the world is witnessing “fierce competition” for influence, control, and resources at a pace and intensity unseen in eighty years.

He pointed to the “enormous collective suffering” of civilians in many parts of the world, from Sudan and the Gaza Strip to Ukraine and Myanmar.

The High Commissioner warned that the situation in the Gaza Strip “remains catastrophic,” explaining that Palestinians are still dying from Israeli attacks, cold, hunger, and treatable diseases.

The genocide left more than 72,000 Palestinians dead and over 171,000 wounded, most of them children and women, and destroyed 90 percent of the infrastructure, with reconstruction costs estimated by the United Nations at around $70 billion.

Israel violates the ceasefire agreement, in effect since October 10, 2015, daily, resulting in the deaths of 615 Palestinians. It also prevents the entry of agreed-upon quantities of humanitarian aid into Gaza, where some 2.4 million Palestinians are living in catastrophic conditions.

Turk noted that the aid allowed into Gaza is insufficient to meet the enormous needs.

He continued, “There are fears of ethnic cleansing, both in Gaza and in the West Bank, where Israel is accelerating its efforts to consolidate its illegal annexation.”

He stressed that a sustainable solution to the Palestinian issue must be based on UN resolutions and international law, and must be “based on two states living side by side in dignity and with equal rights.”

Since the start of the genocide in the Gaza Strip on October 8, 2023, the Israeli army and settlers have intensified their attacks in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, including killings, arrests, destruction and demolition of homes and structures, displacement, and settlement expansion.

Palestinians warn that these crimes pave the way for Israel to formally annex the West Bank, which would mean the end of the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state, as stipulated in UN resolutions.