On 4 June, just two days after Israeli security forces shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy for allegedly throwing stones and two Molotov cocktails at well-protected soldiers in Sinjil, Ramallah, Israeli settlers rampaged through the Palestinian village of Deir Dibwan, Ramallah, torched one home, several vehicles, and reportedly injured 35 Palestinians. According to information publicly available, no one was arrested, reflecting Israel’s systemic discrimination against Palestinians.

It is reported today that the Israeli military killed at least 32 Palestinians trying to access food today at distribution points set up in northwestern Rafah and Middle Gaza by the so-called ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’ (GHF) and Safe Research Solutions (SRS), an American security company tasked by Israel with distributing food.

In the early morning of 1 June, the Israeli military reportedly shot at Palestinians trying to reach the aid distribution points in northwestern Rafah. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, there were over 200 Palestinian casualties, including 31 killed and dozens seriously injured. Around the same time, in a similar incident close to another distribution point south of the Netzarim corridor in Middle Gaza, at least 1 person was shot and killed, and 42 were injured. While more information is being gathered, in both locations, the casualties reportedly include children and women.

The killings today follow numerous reports of the lethal use of firearms against Palestinians approaching GHF distribution points in Rafah and Middle Gaza since this new mechanism was established late last month. Between 27 and 31 May, the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) had already recorded daily violence connected with the mechanism, including reports of at least 19 Palestinians killed and 80 injured in total. At least 2 Palestinians were reportedly missing.

The UN Human Rights Office OPT stresses once more that Israel’s militarised humanitarian assistance mechanism violates international standards on aid distribution, endangers civilians, and is contributing to the catastrophic situation in Gaza. The 20 months of hostilities, Israel’s destruction of civilian infrastructure across Gaza, the almost 3 months of complete siege and blockade of Gaza, attacks on community kitchens, as well as the unlawful targeting of civilians including the police force, have led to a break down in civil order and is forcing on Palestinians the stark choice of dying from starvation or risk being killed while trying to access the meagre food that is being made available through the GHF.

The weaponisation of food for civilians and restricting or preventing their access to other life sustaining services constitute a war crime and may constitute elements of other international crimes, including genocide.

Israel, as the occupying power, has the duty, to the fullest extent of the means available to it, to ensure the provision of food and medical care for the population commensurate with their needs. They have further obligations to facilitate access by international humanitarian service providers and to facilitate the access of the civilian population to that assistance. The Office recalls that in 2024 the International Court of Justice, having found that there was a real and imminent risk of irreparable prejudice to the plausible rights of Palestinians in Gaza under the Genocide Convention, issued binding orders on Israel to take all measures to ensure, without delay, and in cooperation with the UN, the unhindered provision at scale of aid and assistance to Gaza.

As a matter of urgency, Israel must immediately comply if further unnecessary deaths of Palestinian civilians are to be prevented. 

The Israeli military’s escalation of attacks in Gaza over the weekend raises further concerns that Israel is inflicting conditions of life on Palestinians increasingly incompatible with their continued existence in Gaza as a group. These latest attacks, which are forcing people to move while they are being bombed, the methodical destruction of entire neighborhoods, and the denial of humanitarian assistance underline an apparent push for a permanent demographic shift in Gaza that is in defiance of international law and tantamount to ethnic cleansing. Palestinian civilians are dying under the bombs or from hunger. This is intolerable, and a ceasefire must be immediately agreed and implemented.

On 19 May the Israeli Defense Forces announced that they had struck '160 terror targets" across Gaza over the period of one day, which in the context of the existing destruction of infrastructure in Gaza, raises grave concerns that not all strikes were targeted at military objectives. Furthermore, the pattern of strikes on Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) tents and residential buildings, as well as on crowded hospitals, indicates that little, if any, care is being taken to protect the lives of civilians in Gaza, while reports of the use of weapons with wide area effects suggest deliberate, indiscriminate attacks.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation is beyond description. For the third consecutive month, Israel continues to prevent the entry and distribution of any items essential for life. Mass displacement continues as a result of bombings and strikes, the humanitarian catastrophe, and displacement orders, some of which no longer even identify areas where civilians should move. Around 150,000 people reportedly have been displaced in the last 24 hours alone. Displaced Palestinians are being forced onto the streets, with no shelter, and in most cases with no food, water or medical care. On 19 May, Israel issued more displacement orders impacting large areas of Khan Younis and Deir El Balah, which will result in further massive displacement, death, destruction, and push people into smaller areas.

Those who have been forced from their homes or other shelters remain under attack. In the last 48 hours, the Israeli military has intensified strikes, especially in North Gaza and Khan Younis and adjacent Deir al Balah in Middle Gaza, killing at least 96 Palestinians during the night and early morning of 17-18 May alone. In the last few days, the majority of Palestinians killed were in IDP tents, especially in the overcrowded Al Mawasi area in western Khan Yunis, where the Israeli military had previously unilaterally designated a “humanitarian zone.” During the late

night of 17 May, Israeli military strikes on IDP tents in Al Mawasi killed at least 36 Palestinians, including 4 cases in which parents and their children were killed together. In the morning of 18 May, an attack on another IDP tent near Alkhear Hospital in Al Mawasi, killed 4 Palestinians, a man and his 3 boys.

In less than 24 hours, 5 Palestinian journalists were reportedly killed, including a female journalist. This wave of killings of journalists came a few days after 3 other journalists were killed on 13 and 14 May.

OHCHR has verified the killing of 214 Palestinian journalists in Gaza since 7 October 2023, including 185 men and 29 women. The apparent targeting of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, combined with the denial by Israel of access of foreign journalist to Gaza for over 18 months, except a few visits controlled by IDF, appear to indicate a deliberate attempt by Israel to limit the flow of information to and from Gaza and prevent reporting on the impact of its attacks and denial of humanitarian assistance. 

For the past 18 months, hostilities in Gaza and severe restrictions on humanitarian assistance, which now include a complete blockade, have devastated the lives of 2.2 million Palestinians, and nearly all essential infrastructure that civilians depend on for survival has been destroyed. Since the collapse of the ceasefire, and during the past week in particular, Israeli attacks on Palestinians have accelerated, claiming the lives of countless civilians and further risking the complete destruction of what little infrastructure remains. The dire conditions for civilians have been further exacerbated by displacement orders and Israel’s renewed complete blockade of the Gaza Strip that has stopped the flow of life saving, critical assistance from reaching increasingly desperate civilians.

In parallel, rampant settler violence and operations conducted by Israeli security forces in the West Bank are continuing to kill or injure Palestinians and are resulting in the forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes or shelters in many areas.

Attacks in Gaza

What little remains of Gaza’s critical life-saving infrastructure is collapsing under the conditions inflicted by Israel. Israel’s complete closure of Gaza, preventing lifesaving assistance from reaching civilians - including food and fuel - has now entered its eighth week. Bakeries have stopped functioning due to the lack of flour and cooking fuel; the prices of basic food items are soaring; and Israeli attacks at sea continue to decimate Gaza’s fishing industry. With food aid halted, remaining stocks in Gaza are rapidly depleting, rendering the strip’s population, especially vulnerable groups and children, at growing risk of starvation.

As the population becomes increasingly desperate due to the scarcity of food and other vital provisions, social unrest is deepening further, with frequent reports of disputes breaking out within the community involving the use of firearms. This takes place in an environment where the law enforcement and justice system has been systematically dismantled by Israeli attacks and the targeting of civilian officials of the local administration.

The Israeli military also continues targeting civilian objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population. Between 21 and 22 April, the Israeli military conducted deliberate and coordinated attacks across three governorates in Gaza, resulting in the destruction of 36 heavy machines, including excavators, water trucks, and sewer suction tanks. These were being used by Gaza municipalities for humanitarian relief operations, such as rubble removal, water distribution, and maintenance of vital sanitation systems. The destruction of these vehicles is likely to significantly hinder rescue operations, including retrieval of the injured and killed from under the rubble, clearance of debris to allow the movement of ambulances, as well as delivery of safe drinking water, solid waste collection, and the operation of sewage systems – further risking outbreaks of disease. Intentional attacks on civilian objects, that is, objects that are not used for military action and whose destruction does not offer a definite military advantage at the moment of the attack, are unlawful and constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law.

The Israeli military also continues striking the shelters of Palestinians in Gaza. Between 18 March and 22 April, the UN Human Rights office for the Occupied Palestinian Territory recorded 229 attacks on residential buildings and 91 attacks on tents of internally displaced people (IDP) in Gaza, most resulting in fatalities, including many children and women. For instance, at around midnight on 18 April, the Israeli military is reported to have struck two residential buildings belonging to the Maqdad and the Nasio families in Tal Az-Za’atar, North Gaza, killing 13 Palestinians, including 8 children and a journalist, Tamer Maqdad, and injuring others. On 24 April, at around 0300 hours, the Israeli Air Force reportedly hit a house, in Ash Shaikh Redwan, Gaza City, killing two boys and a girl along with their parents. Among these attacks, 36 strikes on IDP tents were reported to have taken place in Al Mawasi area in southern Gaza in which the Israeli military has repeatedly ordered residents of other areas to relocate.

Persistent Israeli military attacks on civilians and civilian objects have continued throughout Gaza in violation of the core principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack required by international humanitarian law. Extremely high civilian casualties over 18 months do not appear to have prompted any changes in Israeli targeting practices and policies, a pattern indicating at the very least a complete disregard for the lives of civilians in Gaza. Matched with Israel’s policy of deliberately blocking life-saving assistance from entering the Gaza Strip, these policies appear to be aimed at punishing the civilian population of Gaza and inflicting on them conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence as a group in Gaza.

Third States must act according to their clear and unambiguous obligations under international law to ensure that such conduct ceases immediately and to search for and bring to justice perpetrators of crimes under international law.

Renewed wave of settler violence across the West Bank

In the West Bank, high levels of settler violence against Palestinians continue, causing death, injuries and loss of property and undermining Palestinian lives and livelihoods in many areas. On 23 April, Israeli settlers reportedly attacked Palestinians and their property in Khirbet al-Tell area of Sinjil village, Ramallah, resulting in the injury of eight young Palestinian men and the destruction of three agricultural structures. According to information gathered, Israeli security forces prevented emergency crews from reaching the wounded and extinguishing the fire. On 21 April, around 200 settlers burned three houses in the same community and stole sheep belonging to Palestinians, prompting confrontations with residents attempting to defend their properties.

Concerning incidents of settler violence resulting in Palestinian injuries and destruction of property were also recorded in other parts of the West Bank. In Bardala village in northern Jordan Valley, between 23 and 24 April, Israeli settlers reportedly injured seven Palestinians with live ammunition and set fire to residential tents and livestock shelters, while Israeli security forces delayed access of Palestinian ambulances to the area. On 17 April in Al-Rakeez village of Massafer Yatta, South Hebron Hills, a 60-year-old Palestinian man had his leg amputated after Israeli settlers shot him following an attempt to move a fence they had constructed around his land. Following the incident, Israeli security forces arrived at the scene and arrested the man’s 16-year-old son, claiming he had assaulted military personnel.

Israeli security forces continued the practice of unlawful killings and large-scale operations in the Northern West Bank

Over the past week, Israeli security forces killed three Palestinians who were throwing stones, including two children. This raised 192 the number of children killed by Israeli security forces in the West Bank since 7 October 2023. On 23 April, Israeli security forces opened fire at a group of children and killed a 12-year-old Palestinian boy with a bullet in the back after they threw stones at military armoured vehicles in Yamoun town, Jenin. On 17 April, Israeli security forces killed two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man, who were throwing stones at a highway in Osarin village, Nablus.

Lethal force may only be used if it is strictly unavoidable to protect life; if other, less extreme measures could be used to achieve this objective, then the use of such lethal force constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of life.

Meanwhile, the large-scale operation in the northern West Bank entered its third month, with Israeli security forces continuing to prevent Palestinians from returning to their homes in the refugee camps of Jenin and Tulkarm, while carrying out widespread destruction coupled with the creation of pathways and barriers inside the camps and conducting daily raids on Palestinian towns and villages. With every day this operation continues, the prospect that Palestinians in affected camps will be able to return to their homes is diminishing, risking the permanent displacement of Palestinians from key West Bank population centres, amounting to forcible transfer. 

Across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Palestinian people continue to increasingly grapple with Israel’s complete disregard of its obligations under international law to protect Palestinians and their chances of building a future that fulfills their rights to a dignified life and to self-determination.

Precarious situation in Gaza:

In Gaza, since the ceasefire agreement entered into effect on 19 January, Israeli military reportedly killed 58 Palestinians including ten children and three women, mostly in the vicinity of the Israeli imposed “nogo” zones including the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors, as well as eastern Rafah, Khan Younis, and Beit Hanun. Many of those killed were reportedly attempting to check on their homes. Targeting Palestinians who are not actively participating in hostilities is a war crime regardless of the Israeli-imposed movement restrictions.

For the fifth consecutive day, Israel has blocked humanitarian aid as well as all other goods and supplies, including fuel, from entering Gaza, causing prices to soar and anxiety to spread over the possible return to bombardment and starvation. This is coinciding with the start of the Holy month of Ramadan, further heightening the stress of Palestinian families, most of whom remain displaced. Lack of adequate shelter, warm clothing and healthcare services led to the death of at least eight babies in the past two weeks from the cold, three of whom were reportedly newborns.

As the occupying power, Israel has a legal obligation to ensure the provision of the necessities of life for Palestinians living under its control. This includes food, clean water, shelter, and adequate healthcare. Any denial of the entry of the necessities of life for civilians may amount to collective punishment. The use of hunger and starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime.

Additionally, efforts to remove tons of rubble and waste are greatly hampered by the lack of the required heavy equipment and fuel. Palestinian families and civil defence workers continue to extract bodies from under the rubble — at least 808 bodies recovered since the ceasefire started.

Large-scale West Bank operation continues:

In the West Bank, an Israeli security operation continues to ravage northern communities, killed dozens, forcibly displaced about 40,000 Palestinians, emptying entire refugee camps. The Israeli Minister of Defense told media that Israeli security forces will remain in parts of the emptied territory for a year and will prevent residents from returning. The operation started on 21 January and preliminarily targeted Jenin, then extended to include Tubas and Tulkarem governorates. So far, Israeli security forces have killed 54 Palestinians in the course of this operation, including eight children, and two women. Outside these governorates, during the past two weeks, Israeli security forces killed five other Palestinians including a 12-year-old boy shot in the back in Hebron.

The killings increasingly demonstrate an alarming disregard for Palestinian lives with high prevalence of unlawful killings. As there are no hostilities in the West Bank, the international human rights law standards on the use of force in law enforcement operations apply. Instead, Israel now routinely resorts to using tactics and weapons developed for war fighting, including the deployment of airstrikes and tanks.

Alarming incidents reported over recent weeks include Israeli security forces opening fire at a house in Jenin, killing a two-day old baby girl inside; shooting and killing an eight-month pregnant woman trying to flee Nur Shams refugee camp in which an operation by the Israeli security forces was ongoing; the killing of a 13-year-old girl in the courtyard of her house also in Jenin; and the killing of a ten-year old boy while standing in front of a building in Tulkarem.

Since January, three members of Israeli security forces were killed by Palestinian armed men in the West Bank or inside Israel. A 17-year-old Israeli girl succumbed to injuries sustained when a Palestinian man rammed a car into a crowd of Israelis in north Israel last week. The attacker was subsequently shot and killed.

Coinciding with the operation, restrictions of movement have also dramatically increased, strangling communities and preventing thousands of students and workers in northern areas from reaching their schools and workplaces.

According to Israeli media, Israeli security forces are planning to limit the number of worshippers from the West Bank allowed to access Al Aqsa Compound in East Jerusalem for Friday prayers during Ramadan to only 10,000. This is a significant drop from the tens of thousands who gathered for Friday prayers in Al Aqsa Mosque in previous years. Ahead of the first Ramadan Friday prayer tomorrow, Israeli media is reporting movement restrictions around East Jerusalem, including the deployment of thousands of security officers and the closing of key roads, which is likely to have a severe impact on freedom of movement.

Steps to consolidate annexation and forced transfer:

Of particular concern is the mass forced displacement in large swaths of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In Gaza, Israeli forces’ continued presence, and the constant killing of Palestinians around the Israelidesignated no-go zones is effectively preventing Palestinian residents from returning to their homes in these areas.

In the newly emptied parts of the West Bank, houses are being reportedly destroyed. At least 120 buildings in Jenin and 41 in Tulkarem have been demolished so far, apparently to make space for the creation of wide streets that would allow easier passage to military forces. Israeli security forces also announced that they will imminently demolish 16 houses in Nur Shams refugee camp. Signs are being erected that give freshly bulldozed streets and junctions Hebrew names in Jenin and Tulkarem.

In parallel, increasing numbers of Palestinian herding and farming communities are being displaced from Area C and other fertile areas of the West Bank, forced to leave by state and settler violence, restricted access to land and pastures, and discriminatory policies.

These steps are being taken against a backdrop of a barrage of statements from Israeli officials and lawmakers promoting further consolidation, under Israeli law, of the annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Statements also call for the forcible transfer and deportation of Palestinians in Gaza.

Earlier this week, the Ministerial Committee at the Israeli Knesset preliminarily approved a bill to extend Israeli law, jurisdiction and administration to settlements around Jerusalem, which would further cement annexation. This threatens to further fragment the Occupied West Bank, further isolate the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, and complicate any future efforts to fulfil Palestinians’ right to self-determination. Israeli media quoted lawmakers who explained the bill is a significant step towards extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank.

Measures to forcibly displace Palestinians and consolidate the annexation of their land fly in the face of Israel’s obligations under international law, including its duty to end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to immediately evacuate all settlements as affirmed by the International Court of Justice. These measures must stop and be reversed, and Palestinians across the occupied territory must be allowed to return to their homes in safety and in dignity.

Accountability must be prioritised for violations committed by all duty bearers, including Israel, Palestinian armed groups, and the Palestinian Authority as an essential step towards a just and sustainable peace.

The UN Human Rights Office condemns the intensifying Israeli operation in the northern West Bank and calls for the immediate halt to this alarming wave of violence and mass displacement.

Unlawful killings

Israeli security forces have so far killed 44 Palestinians, many of them unarmed and not posing an imminent threat to life or of serious injury, since the start of the operation on 21 January which has affected Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas governorates, and four refugee camps in these areas. Among those killed are five children and two women. One of the women killed, 23-year-old Sundus Shalabi, was fleeing Nour Shams refugee camp with her husband on 9 February when Israeli security forces shot at their car, critically injuring her husband. When she left the car in search of safety, she was shot and killed with her unborn child. According to Israeli media reports, an investigation by the Israeli military preliminarily confirmed that Sundus and her husband, Yazan, were unarmed and posed no threat to life. 
In Tulkarem city, a 10-year-boy, Saddam Hussein Rajab, was shot in the chest by Israeli security forces and succumbed to his injuries on 7 February. Circulating video evidence showed the moment he was shot while simply standing in front of a building.

This is part of an expanding pattern of Israel’s unlawful use of force in the West Bank where there are no active hostilities, and a continuously increasing number of apparently unlawful killings documented by the UN Human Rights Office.

Mass displacement

The operation is also raising concerns about levels of mass displacement unprecedented in the Occupied West Bank for decades. According to UNRWA, the Israeli operation has so far displaced nearly 40,000 Palestinians.

The UN Human Rights Office received daily reports from displaced residents describing a pattern where they are led out of their homes by Israeli security forces and drones under the threat of violence. They are then forced out of their towns with snipers positioned on rooftops around them and houses in their neighbourhoods used as posts by Israeli security forces.

Aseel, a 29-year-old mother of three, has been displaced three times so far. First from her home in Jenin by Palestinian security forces last December when they were engaged in an operation in Jenin, then by Israeli security forces when she attempted to return in January. Her house was burnt down shortly afterwards according to photos shared by some of her neighbours. After fleeing to Tulkarem to stay with her family, Israeli security forces again forced her out end of January when the ongoing Israeli operation extended from Jenin to neighbouring refugee camps.

Another young woman said that she fled her home in Tulkarem in panic—barefoot and carrying her one-and four-year-old children—when she heard Israeli security forces threatening via loudspeakers on jeeps and drones that anyone who did not immediately leave would be shot. She pleaded with officers to go back inside for her youngest’s heart medications or to at least put on shoes.

“Leave this place and forget the camp. You will never return. Move now before we destroy it completely,” was the answer she reported in her testimony.

Other eyewitness testimonies also recounted similar statements by Israeli security force members who reportedly told displaced residents to “forget” and “say goodbye” to their homes, stressing they would not be allowed to return. One resident reported being told to “go to Jordan.”

Photos received from Jenin refugee camp on Thursday show freshly bulldozed roads with new signs apparently giving several streets Hebrew names. This is happening while statements by Israeli officials persist in communicating open plans to annex the region, empty it of Palestinians, and expel them out of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

In this regard, we reiterate that any forcible transfer in or deportation of people from occupied territory is strictly prohibited and amounts to a crime under international law.

Legal obligations

Displaced Palestinians must be allowed to return to their homes. The killing of each and every Palestinian must be promptly, effectively, and transparently investigated, and perpetrators of unlawful killings must be held to account. Military commanders and other superiors may be held responsible for the crimes committed by their subordinates if they fail to take all necessary and reasonable measures to prevent or punish unlawful killings.

Furthermore, Israel must comply with its other obligations under international law, which include ending its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible and evacuating all West Bank settlements immediately. In the meantime, as the occupying power, Israel must ensure the protection of Palestinians, the provision of basic services and needs, and the respect of Palestinians’ full range of human rights.