Geneva — The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern about the potential for “ethnic cleansing” in a new report released Tuesday, saying Israel has accelerated settlement expansion in large parts of the occupied West Bank and Forced displacement More than 36 thousand Palestinians.
The report, issued by the office of Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, covers a year-long period until the end of October. It condemns the increasing violence practiced by Israeli settlers and security forces against Palestinians in the region.
Turk claimed that Israeli authorities “play the central role in directing, participating in, or enabling this behavior,” and the report denounced the harassment, intimidation, and destruction of Palestinian agricultural lands and homes.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Israeli embassy in Geneva did not immediately comment.
Much of the displacement of thousands has occurred in the northern West Bank, where Israel launched a large-scale military offensive in early 2025. The Israeli government says the operation aims to eliminate armed groups active in the area.
The report says that the displacement “appears to indicate a coordinated Israeli policy of mass forced displacement throughout the occupied territories, with the aim of permanent displacement, raising fears of ethnic cleansing.”
At the same time, the hard-line Israeli government went ahead with its project Increase in new Israeli settlements Throughout the West Bank. The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements illegal, although the Trump administration has been more tolerant of construction. Settler leaders and their political allies dominate the Israeli government.
The Human Rights Office of the United Nations Secretariat, António Guterres, said that the Israeli authorities have approved or proceeded with the construction of nearly 37,000 housing units in occupied East Jerusalem and more than 27,000 housing units elsewhere in the West Bank.
Turk called for an immediate halt to settlement activity and reversing its impact, along with the evacuation of all settlers and “ending the occupation of Palestinian lands.”
The construction boom was accompanied by an increase in settler violence against Palestinians. Israeli leaders portray the violence as the work of a small minority, but Palestinians and human rights groups say the Israeli military has done little to prevent attacks and point out that settlers are rarely targeted. Accountability.
Earlier this month, three Palestinians were killed in a violent clash with settlers near Khirbet Abu Falah, east of Ramallah, and in a rare rebuke, the Israeli army strongly condemned settler violence.
Outside the period covered by the United Nations report, the Palestinian Authority was accused Israel “exploits the atmosphere of war” The lack of international interest in issues in the West Bank, which led to intensified acts of intimidation, violence, and forced displacement.