GENEVA: The United Nations urged Israel on Tuesday to halt immediately its dramatic settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, raising concerns of “ethnic cleansing” with over 36,000 Palestinians displaced in a single year.

A fresh report from the United Nations rights office, looking at the 12 months up to Oct 31 last year, warned that Israel’s accelerating expansion of unlawful settlements and annexation of large parts of the occupied West Bank was driving “unprecedented” displacement.

“The displacement of more than 36,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank represented the mass expulsion of Pales­tinians on a scale previously unseen, amounting to unlawful transfer that is prohibited under international humanitarian law,” the report said.

Alongside “the extensive displacement of Palestinians in Gaza”, it “appears to indicate a concerted Israeli policy of mass forcible transfer throughout the occupied territory, aimed at permanent displacement, raising concerns of ethnic cleansing”.

Urges Israel to immediately stop dramatic expansion of illegal settlements, annexation of large territory

The report pointed to the advancement or approval by Israeli authorities of 36,973 housing units in settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and around 27,200 in the rest of the occupied West Bank.

Also during the 12-month-period, “an unprecedented 84 settlement outposts were established across the occupied West Bank, bringing the total number to more than 300”, the report said.

In addition to roughly three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has risen sharply since the Oct 7, 2023, Hamas raid in Israel.

There has also been a spike in deadly attacks by Israeli settlers since the start of the Iran war, with at least six Palestinians killed since the hostilities began on Feb 28.

‘War crime’

According to a tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures, Israeli troops or settlers have killed 1,045 Palestinians in the occupied territory since Oct 2023.

In Tuesday’s report, the UN rights office said it had documented 1,732 incidents of settler violence resulting in casualties or property damage over the course of the reporting period.

That compares to 1,400 during the previous 12-month period, it said.

“Settler violence continued in a coordinated, strategic and largely unchallenged manner, with Israeli authorities playing the central role,” the report said.

Volker Turk, the UN rights chief, called on Israel to “immediately and completely cease and reverse the establishment and expansion of settlements”.

In a statement, he also urged “the evacuation (of) all settlers, and an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territory”.

And he insisted that Israel “must also enable the return of displaced Palestinians, and stop all practices of land confiscation, forced evictions and house demolitions”.

The report also decried that advancing settlement plans were heightening the risk of displacement faced by thousands of Palestinians from Bedouin communities located northeast of East Jerusalem.

Unlawful transfer of protected persons constitutes a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, constituting a war crime, it stressed. “Under certain circumstances, it may also amount to a crime against humanity.”

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2026