UNITED NATIONS, June 22: A UN Human Rights expert on Thursday cited the worsening human rights situation in Israeli occupied Palestinian territory after election victory by Hamas and subsequent cut-off of international funding.

“In effect the Palestinian people have been subjected to economic sanctions — the first time that an occupied people have been so treated,” the Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, John Dugard, said, calling it ‘possibly the most rigorous form of international sanctions imposed in modern times’.

He called for intensified diplomatic action by the UN and European Union (EU) in view of the United States’ failure to play the needed role.

“Hamas’ refusal to recognise Israel’s right to exist and renounce violence will not be changed by isolation but by engagement and diplomacy. Unfortunately the United States is unprepared to play the role of peace facilitator,” he wrote in the report on a nine-day visit to the occupied Palestinian territory earlier this month.

“This leaves the EU and the UN as the obvious honest brokers between Israelis and Palestinians. Whether either of these bodies can play this role while remaining part of the Quartet is questionable,” he added.