Washington/Ekal Turan/Anatolia
The UN Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wensland, said on Wednesday that Israel “is currently holding a total of 1,264 Palestinians in administrative detention.”
This number of detainees, according to the UN envoy, “is the highest in more than a decade.”
In a speech he delivered before the UN Security Council, Winsland said, “Israeli security forces carried out 1,042 search and arrest operations in the West Bank, which led to the arrest of 1,504 Palestinians, including 88 children.”
During the reporting period, extending from July 15 to September 19, 68 Palestinians, including 18 children, were killed by Israeli security forces during demonstrations, clashes, security operations, attacks or alleged attacks against Israelis, and other incidents.
The UN envoy confirmed that a total of 2,830 Palestinians, including 30 women and 559 children, were injured, including 271 by live ammunition and 2,119 by inhaling tear gas.
He noted that the lack of funding continues to undermine the United Nations’ ability to provide vital services to the Palestinians.
Wensland said that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) urgently needs $75 million to continue food aid until the end of the year for 1.2 million Palestinians in Gaza.
He added that the World Food Program needs $32 million to restore social assistance to priority families throughout the occupied Palestinian territories.
He stressed that Israel is currently holding 1,264 Palestinians in administrative detention, the highest number in more than ten years.
Wensland also noted that “Israeli settlements entrench occupation and violence and systematically undermine the viability of the Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution.”
He expressed deep concern about “the escalation of violence in the occupied West Bank and Israel, at levels not seen in decades and the increasing use of lethal weapons, even in densely populated areas.”
He stressed the need to take immediate steps to calm tensions.
On Tuesday, Wensland made a visit to the Gaza Strip that lasted several hours, while repeatedly announcing that he was also holding talks with Israeli officials to calm the situation in Gaza.
For the tenth day, demonstrations were renewed on the borders of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday at the call of young men calling themselves “rebel youth” on social media, “denouncing the settlers’ storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the ongoing violations in the West Bank, and the continued siege of Gaza.”
For 10 days, the Israeli authorities have prevented workers from leaving the Gaza Strip to work in Israel, while its army is bombing Palestinian targets near the Strip’s borders.
Since last year, the West Bank has also witnessed a state of severe tension following the Israeli army’s incursions into Palestinian cities and camps.
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