• Calls on international community to pressure Israel to halt settlement expansion on Palestinian land
• Guterres says Israeli settlements in occupied West Bank have no legal validity and violate international law

WASHINGTON: Pakistan on Tuesday urged the international community to persuade Israel to halt new Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands, warning that the situation was approaching a “dangerous tipping point”, as UN Secretary-General António Guterres said all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank had no legal validity and constituted a “flagrant violation” of international law.

Britain urged Israel to do more to prevent and prosecute settler violence, while Russia warned that the West Bank was approaching a “point of no return” and risked profound regional destabilisation, as the UN Security Council debated escalating attacks on Palestinians and settlement expansion.

“The situation is approaching a dangerous tipping point. Unless this trajectory is reversed, the consequences for the two-state solution — and for peace and stability across the region — could be catastrophic,” Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad told the Council.

He told the Security Council that settlement expansion, settler violence, land seizures and the extension of Israeli authority over Palestinian land were part of a broader effort to entrench the occupation and undermine the prospects of a Palestinian state.

He said these measures were fragmenting Palestinian territory and, together with settler violence, had produced the largest displacement crisis in occupied West Bank since 1967.

Pakistan also expressed alarm over escalating provocations at Al Aqsa Mosque, calling on Israel to respect the historical and legal status quo at the holy sites and halt provocative actions.

Ahmad called for international protection for Palestinians and accountability for those responsible for settler violence. He also urged Israel to immediately release Palestinian tax revenues it was withholding, saying the money belonged to the Palestinian people and that its continued withholding was severely undermining Palestinian institutions.

British Ambassador Sarah MacIntosh condemned escalating violence across the occupied West Bank, describing attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian villages and communities, sometimes alongside Israeli Defence Forces, as “appalling”.

She said children were being exposed to repeated violence, displacement and disruption, citing the August 4 demolition by Israeli forces of three donor-funded classrooms at Shaab al-Butum school.

MacIntosh said Israeli settlers had acted with impunity for too long. “Much more must be done to prevent and prosecute acts of violence,” she said.

She also called for a halt to settlement expansion, saying the settlements were illegal under international law and undermined the viability of a two-state solution.

Russian Ambassador Vassily A. Nebenzia said the West Bank was “approaching a point of no return”, warning of the risk of profound regional destabilisation.

He blamed Israel for its “creeping” settlement expansion, escalating violence and an “unprecedented” tightening of movement restrictions on Palestinians.

Nebenzia said Israel continued its “illegal policy of building new settlements”, pointing to a government tender issued last week for more than 600 housing units in Ramallah al-Bireh.

The UN relief agency OCHA reported that 1,122 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank between Oct 7, 2023, when the Gaza conflict began, and July 24, 2026. The toll included 76 Palestinians killed this year.

OCHA said Israeli forces or settlers injured at least 37 Palestinians between July 28 and August 3, while 35 settler attacks were documented during the same period.

The UN human rights office said last month that settler violence had reached an “all-time high” as new settlements were approved. It said Israeli settlers and Israeli security forces had “often” acted together in attacks on Palestinian communities.

Pakistan said the cumulative effect of settlement expansion, settler violence, land seizures and other measures was intimidation, dispossession and forced displacement.

“The path to peace lies in ending the Israeli occupation and enabling the Palestinian people to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination,” Ahmad said, calling for an independent, sovereign, viable and contiguous Pale­stinian state based on the pre-1967 borders, with Al Quds Al Sharif as its capital.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2026