Merve Gül Aydoğan Ağlarcı
31 March 2026•Update: 31 March 2026
The UN on Monday warned that escalating Israeli occupier attacks in the occupied West Bank are mounting "systematic pressure" on Palestinians to leave their homes and communities, with humanitarian officials documenting an alarming rise in incidents.
Citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric at a news conference reported that "airstrikes and shelling hit residential areas in Gaza, as well as a fatal shooting by Israeli forces and other attacks by settlers in the West Bank" over the weekend.
Dujarric also pointed to an incident where Israeli occupiers torched two vehicles early Monday in the southern West Bank, "where neighbors managed to extinguish the fire and save the family."
"Such incidents have become frequent, and they put systematic pressure on Palestinians to leave their homes and their communities," he stressed.
Warning that the attacks also "result in fatalities, injuries, damage and displacement, deepening humanitarian needs," Dujarric said: "Perpetrators of these unlawful attacks must be held to account."
Occupier attacks in the West Bank have escalated in recent weeks, with eight Palestinians reportedly killed by occupier gunfire since late February, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.
About 750,000 Israeli occupiers live in hundreds of settlements across the West Bank, including around 250,000 in East Jerusalem. Occupiers carry out frequent attacks on Palestinians that rights groups said aim to displace them forcibly.
Violent attacks have intensified across the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, encompassing killings, demolitions, displacement and settlement expansion.
The Israeli attacks have claimed at least 1,136 Palestinian lives, wounded at least 11,700 others, and led to the arrest of roughly 22,000 people, according to official Palestinian figures, amid international warnings that Israel may move to annex the territory.
Dujarric further expressed the UN's concern over Israeli "restrictions imposed on our humanitarian operations."
"Today, international NGOs confirmed their intention to proceed with a petition to the Israeli High Court of Justice challenging the new Israeli registration system, which further restricts their ability to operate, not only in Israel, but also in the occupied Palestinian territory," he said.
