Regardless of any national policy declarations, Israeli settlement activities are “a flagrant violation under international law”, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process spelled out to the Security Council on Wednesday.
With a large protest planned on Saturday in Gaza, and border shootings by Israeli security forces which have left nearly 200 Palestinians dead over the past year, the UN’s top humanitarian official in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (oPt), Jamie McGoldrick, on Friday called for calm from all sides to prevent further bloodshed.
A special session of the UN Human Rights Council has ended with a resolution by Member States to investigate weeks of violence on the Israeli border with Gaza, which has claimed the lives of more than 100 people in the enclave and left thousands wounded.
