Ankara: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) reported Wednesday Israel's continued destruction and forced displacement campaigns in the occupied West Bank. 'The future of Gaza and West Bank are one. A drawdown in Gaza should not become an opportunity to tighten the grip of occupation elsewhere,' the agency quoted Roland Friedrich, the director of UNRWA Affairs for the occupied West Bank, as saying on US social media company X.

According to Anadolu Agency, Friedrich pointed out a significant escalation of settler violence and settlement expansion across the West Bank, 'pushing vulnerable Palestinian communities from their lands amid increasingly coercive conditions-paving the way for annexation.' The agency reported that illegal Israeli settlers have carried out 7,154 attacks against Palestinians and their property across the West Bank since October 2023, resulting in the deaths of 33 Palestinians and the displacement of 33 Bedouin communities.

The northern refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams have also been emptied, as residents are strictly prevented from returning to camps under the same policy, the director added. He reaffirmed UNRWA's readiness to work in cooperation with all parties "to ensure a comprehensive outcome that can form the cornerstone of peace and stability for the entirety of the occupied Palestinian territory."

Since October 2023, the Israeli war has killed over 68,200 people and injured more than 170,300 in the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The occupied West Bank also witnessed a sharp rise in attacks over the same period, with at least 1,056 Palestinians killed, around 10,300 injured, and more than 20,000, including 1,600 children, detained, according to official Palestinian figures.