West Bank violence, annexation ‘only getting worse’: UN
The UN human rights office reports that violence and territorial annexation in the West Bank are escalating, with settler attacks reaching record highs. The UN reiterated that Israel's occupation is unlawful and called for urgent international intervention.
Why it matters
This underscores the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the West Bank and the ongoing international legal and political conflict regarding Israeli settlements.
Two years after the International Court of Justice said Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was unlawful, settler violence and territorial annexation is “only getting worse”, the UN said Wednesday (July 29, 2026).
The United Nations’ human rights office said that with attacks by Israeli settlers and the creation of outposts “hitting an all-time high”, countries had to act to end the occupation.
“We are alarmed by the Israeli government’s announcement to further increase the number of settlements and outposts, and open calls by Israeli leaders for revenge and collective punishment against Palestinian communities, accompanied by threats to turn the West Bank into another Gaza,” rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement.
In a sweeping, non-binding “advisory opinion” issued in July 2024, the UN’s top court said that Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory was “illegal”.
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