EU fears Israeli-occupied West Bank becoming a 'new Gaza'

 

Egyptian army tanks are stationed on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on September 9, 2024. [AFP]

The European Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell warned on Tuesday that increased violence in the occupied West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war erupted meant it risked becoming "a new Gaza".

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967 and is separated from the Gaza Strip by Israeli territory, has flared alongside the war that began after Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

Borrell said Israel was opening "a new front... with a clear objective: to turn the West Bank into a new Gaza -– in rising violence, delegitimising the Palestinian Authority and stimulating provocations to react forcefully."

Israel was also "not shying away from saying to the face of the world that the only way to reach a peaceful settlement is to annex the West Bank and Gaza," Borrell added at a ministerial meeting of the Arab League in Cairo.

He accused "radical members of the Israeli government" of trying to make it "impossible to create a future Palestinian state", which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several cabinet members have painted as a threat to Israel.

Some Israeli ministers have recently called to increase military operations in the West Bank.

"Without action, the West Bank will become a new Gaza," Borrell said.

"And Gaza will become a new West Bank, as settlers' movements are preparing new settlements," he told the meeting.

"The international community deplores, feels, and condemns, but finds it hard to act."

Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank hit a record in 2023, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din, and the European Union has said last year saw the most settlement building permits issued in decades.

Some 490,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, in settlements which are illegal under international law, alongside three million Palestinians.

Since the Gaza war began on October 7, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 662 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

At least 23 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the West Bank during the same period, Israeli officials say.

On Tuesday, Israel's military said it was "highly likely" that its forces "unintentionally" shot dead a US-Turkish activist last week, during a protest in the West Bank against settlement expansion.

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was killed on Friday in the town of Beita, the site of weekly demonstrations against Israeli settlements.