GENEVA (Dispatches) – The UN voiced grave concern Tuesday over escalating violence in the West Bank, demanding that Zionist regime troops “immediately end their active participation in and support for settler attacks” on Palestinians there.

“Israeli authorities must instead prevent further attacks, including by bringing those responsible to account,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the United Nations rights office, told reporters in Geneva.

The occupying regime is still imposing “unlawful” restrictions on humanitarian relief for Gaza, the UN rights office said on Tuesday. “Israel continues to impose unlawful restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian assistance, and to carry out widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, at a press briefing in Geneva.

In a latest incident, Israeli settlers killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian officials and witnesses, after a weekend of escalating violence across the territory.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA, citing the Palestinian Health Ministry, identified the victims of the Monday attack near the northern West Bank village of Aqrabah, located eighteen kilometers (11.18 miles) southeast of Nablus, as Abdulrahman Maher Bani Fadel, 30, and Mohammed Ashraf Bani Jame, 21.

Salah Bani Jaber, mayor of Aqrabah, who witnessed the settler attack, said that about 50 settlers, many of them armed, attacked members of his community.

They “assaulted residents and fired at people in the town leading to the death of two citizens,” the mayor said, adding that “the occupation army is still holding the bodies.”

“There were Israeli soldiers at the scene who stood idly by watching the settlers,” he told the Reuters news agency.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israeli soldiers blocked its ambulances from reaching the area and tending to the wounded.

Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank are under constant threat as armed Israeli settlers continue to launch violent attacks on them, their families, and their homes in acts of vengeance.

Palestinian Ministry of Health officials reported on Monday that four Palestinians had been killed in Israeli settler attacks since Friday.

 ‘Unlawful’ Restrictions on Gaza Aid

 

The Zionist regime is still imposing “unlawful” restrictions on humanitarian relief for Gaza, the UN human rights office said on Tuesday, despite claims by Israel that barriers have eased.

The Zionist regime’s onslaught on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 has turned much of the Gaza strip into a wasteland, with hundreds of thousands of people now displaced and crowded into disease-ridden shelters.

The amount of aid now entering Gaza is disputed, with the occupying regime and Washington claiming aid flows have risen in recent days but UN agencies say it is still far below bare minimum levels.

“Israel continues to impose unlawful restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian assistance, and to carry out widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure,” said Shamdasani, reiterating calls for unfettered access.

Israel, which denies hindering humanitarian relief to Gaza, has faced increased international pressure to let more supplies into the Gaza Strip since it hit an aid convoy on April 1, killing international relief workers.

“Those delivering or trying to access humanitarian assistance must never be attacked,” added Shamdasani.