The UN human rights office said on Friday an Israeli plan to build to build thousands of new homes between an Israeli settlement in the West Bank and near East Jerusalem was illegal under international law, and would put nearby Palestinians at risk of forced eviction, which it described as a war crime.
Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday vowed to press on a long-delayed settlement project, saying the move would “bury” the idea of a Palestinian state.
The UN rights office spokesperson said the plan would break the West Bank into isolated enclaves and that it was “a war crime for an occupying power to transfer its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
About 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, a move not recognized by most countries, but has not formally extended sovereignty over the West Bank.
Most world powers say settlement expansion erodes the viability of a two-state solution by breaking up territory the Palestinians seek as part of a future independent state.
The two-state plan envisages a Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, existing side by side with Israel, which captured all three territories in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israel cites historical and biblical ties to the area and says the settlements provide strategic depth and security and that the West Bank is “disputed” not “occupied.”
UN rights office says Israeli settlement plan breaks international law
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UN rights office says Israeli settlement plan breaks international law
- Agency says plans would put nearby Palestinians at risk of forced eviction, which it described as a war crime
- Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has vowed to press on with a long-delayed settlement project to “bury” idea of a Palestinian state
Seven dead, 11 hurt in southern Turkiye bus crash
- Seven people died and 11 others were hurt early Saturday when an intercity bus crashed into a lorry on a motorway in southern Turkiye, the local governor’s office said
ISTANBUL: Seven people died and 11 others were hurt early Saturday when an intercity bus crashed into a lorry on a motorway in southern Turkiye, the local governor’s office said.
The incident, which happened before dawn on the highway linking the cities of Adana and Gaziantep, happened when a coach plowed into an articulated lorry that had stopped after one of its tires blew out, state news agency Anadolu said.
Footage from the scene showed the front right section of the bus was totally mangled where it hit the back of the lorry about 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Gaziantep.
Quoting the Osmaniye governor’s office, Anadolu said all of the dead and injured were on board the bus with efforts ongoing to to identify the victims.
The lorry driver, who survived the crash, was detained with police closing down the road, it said.
