Amid increasing deadly attacks of Israeli forces against Palestinians, UN strongly criticized Israel for making 2022 the deadliest year for Palestinians.
This Thursday, and during the United Nations General Assembly Fifth Committee’s session, UN human rights experts referred to the concerning statistics about the number of Palestinians who have been killed so far this year by the Israeli forces. They condemned Israel for the increasing deadly attacks and excessive use of force against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, which has made 2022 the deadliest year in Palestine.
According to the latest data on the number of casualties in Palestine, Israeli forces have killed more than 150 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including 33 children, which has resulted in 2022 being the deadliest year for Palestinians since 2005.
“Armed and masked Israeli settlers are attacking Palestinians in their homes, attacking children on their way to school, destroying property and burning olive groves, and terrorizing entire communities with complete impunity,” one UN human rights experts said in a statement this Thursday.
The UN agents also demanded that Israel respect and oblige by its obligations under international law and ensure the protection, security and welfare of the Palestinian people living under its occupation; “We remind Israel that pending the dismantlement of its unlawful occupation, Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory must be treated as protected persons, not enemies or terrorists,” said another UN expert.
Good to mention that 2022 is the sixth year in a row that the annual number of Israeli settler attacks in the occupied West Bank increases.
According to international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention and Rome Statute, security forces of Israel are allowed to use firearms against individuals only when they are posing an imminent threat to life or serious injury. This is while, as the UN human rights expert noted, “Palestinians who do not present an imminent threat to life or of serious injury have usually been subject to direct shootings.”
Last but not least, the UN human rights experts called on Israeli forces to “reconcile their rules of engagement with international law and address impunity within their ranks by investigating all deaths at the hands of Israeli forces and settlers.”
UN also drafted an anti-Israeli resolutions
In addition to the anti-Israeli statement by UN human rights experts addressing the brutalities of Israel forces against Palestinians, the UN General Assembly also issued a statement titled ‘Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem’.
According to the resolution, the General Assembly requested the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to “urgently render an advisory on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Occupied Territories since 1967”.
The draft of the resolution was written and proposed by the Palestinian Authority, and since Palestine only has an observer status at the UN, it was submitted via Nicaragua.
In yet another resolution in favor of Palestine, the Assembly reaffirmed the rights of Palestinians over their natural resources. “This UN resolution is an addition to hundreds of resolutions that affirm the Palestinian right and the illegality of the occupation and its aggressive and racist measures and practices,” the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said in a statement this Friday, welcoming the adoption of the resolution.
