UN condemns Israel's 'unlawful air strike' on West Bank camp which killed 18
The United Nations on Friday condemned what it called an
"unlawful air strike" by Israel on a refugee camp in the occupied
West Bank that the Palestinian health ministry said killed 18 people the
previous day.
Described as the deadliest air strike in over two decades in
the West Bank, the Israeli army said the raid in Tulkarem had succeeded in
killing "at least seven terrorists", including a Hamas leader and an
Islamic Jihad member, who were discussing an "imminent terror plan".
The United Nations Human Rights Office slammed the strike,
calling it "unlawful".
"The strike is part of a highly concerning pattern of
unlawful use of force by ISF (Israeli security forces) during military-like
operations in the West Bank that have caused widespread harm to Palestinians,"
the UN rights office said in a statement.
"The levelling of an entire building filled with people
via aerial bombing shows flagrant disregard for Israel's obligations."
On Friday, hundreds gathered for a public funeral in
Tulkarem, where the bodies of the dead were carried through the streets as
people waved flags and fired guns into the air.
Several armed fighters, masked and dressed in black,
attended the funeral, an AFP journalist reported.
"We hope that all Palestinian people will join hands,
as we have one cause," Nasser Kharyoush, a father of one of the victims of
the raid, told AFP.
Tulkarem was one of the towns and Palestinian refugee camps
targeted during a large-scale Israeli military operation in late August against
militants based in the West Bank.
Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in
Gaza which began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
Since the Hamas attack, Israeli troops or settlers have
killed at least 701 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian
health ministry.
At least 24 Israelis, including members of the security
forces, have been killed in Palestinian militant attacks during the same
period, Israeli officials say.
The United Nations rights office said Thursday's strike came
when there were "no clashes or confrontations" at the site.
"The air strike completely destroyed the targeted
building and also damaged nearby houses," it said.
"More fatalities may be trapped under the rubble, but
recovery and identification are proving difficult in light of the massive
impact of the blast."
Major Israeli operations in the West Bank are sometimes
occurring "at a scale not witnessed in the last two decades," United
Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said last month.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and its forces
regularly make incursions into Palestinian communities.
But the current raids as well as comments by Israeli
officials mark an escalation.
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