The United Nations has accused Israel of flagrantly violating international law by expanding illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, saying settlements are illegal and urging the country’s new government to halt their invasion and settlement development in Palestine immediately.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Mideast envoy Tor Wennesland reported on the implementation of a 2016 Security Council resolution that declared settlements have “no legal validity.” The December 2016 resolution, which the United States abstained on in the final weeks of the Obama administration, also called for immediate steps to prevent all acts of violence against civilians.
Wennesland said in a briefing to the council on Guterres’ 12-page report that he was “deeply troubled” by the latest approval of a plan to add 540 housing units to the Har Homa settlement in East Jerusalem as well as the establishment of settlement outposts. He said that is “illegal also under Israeli law.”
Israel ignores the UN and builds more illegal settlements
It demanded a halt to their expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, lands the Palestinians want to include in a future state.
“I again underscore, in no uncertain terms, that these settlements constitute a flagrant violation of United Nations resolutions and international law,” the Mideast envoy said. “They are a major obstacle to the achievement of a two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.”
“The advancement of all settlement activity must cease immediately,” Wennesland said.
During the period between March to June Guterres reported that 295 Palestinians, including 42 women and 73 children, were killed by Israeli security forces and 10,149 were injured during demonstrations, clashes, search-and-arrest operations, airstrikes, shelling and other incidents in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
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