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GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations deplored a “rapid deterioration” of rights in the occupied West Bank in a report published on Thursday and urged Israeli authorities to end violence against the Palestinian population.
The report, published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that 300 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7.
Most of the deaths result from clashes with or operations carried out by the Israeli armed forces.
At least 105 people have died in Israeli operations, including air attacks, in refugee camps or densely populated areas. At least eight people were killed by Israeli settlers, the report said.
Israeli leaders had no immediate comment. Israel says its operations in the West Bank are preventative and aimed at reducing security threats.
“The use of disproportionate and unnecessary force and the application of arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on movement affecting Palestinians are extremely troubling,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.
“I call on Israel to immediately take clear and effective measures to end settler violence against the Palestinian population, to investigate all violent incidents committed by settlers and the Israeli armed forces, and to provide effective protection Palestinian communities,” he added.
The OHCHR also said it had documented mass arbitrary detentions and cases of torture, adding that 4,785 Palestinians have been detained in the West Bank since October 7.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Maayan Lubell, French version by Zhifan Liu, edited by Kate Entringer)
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