Iran Press/ Europe: “For this violence to end, the occupation must end,” Volker Türk said in his annual report on the situation. “On all sides, there are people who know this.”
Last year marked one tragic record in the region: the highest number of Palestinians killed in 17 years.
At least 131 Palestinians were killed in 2022 by the Israeli regime.
“Decade upon decade of loss and violence,” Türk said when he presented his report in Geneva.
“Violence against the occupation; violence to uphold and enforce it. I condemn the violence that has killed and harmed so many people on both sides – and which generates overwhelming despair.”
The report comes as a European Union envoy called for accountability after scores of Israeli settlers went on a violent rampage in the northern West Bank, setting dozens of cars and homes on fire after two settlers were killed by a Palestinian gunman.
Palestinian medics said one man was killed and four others were badly wounded in what appeared to be the worst outburst of settler violence in decades.
"It is absolutely necessary for us that accountability is fully ensured, that the perpetrators be brought to justice, that those who lost property be compensated," Kuhn von Burgsdorff, the head of the envoy, said.
Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group, reported that last year, over 90% of investigations into settler attacks in the occupied West Bank over the past decade and a half were closed without formal charges.
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