United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday demanded
a “stop ” to “
illegal
” Israeli colonization
in the occupied Palestinian territories, while condemning “
terrorism
”, in the midst of renewed violence in the West Bank.
“
Each new settlement is one more obstacle on the road to peace.
All settlement activity is illegal under international law and must end.
At the same time, inciting violence is a dead end.
Nothing justifies terrorism (which) must be rejected by all
,” Antonio Guterres told the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
Most flammable situation in years
This committee, created in 1975, met at the United Nations headquarters in New York when 10 Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, were killed and more than 80 others wounded by bullets during an Israeli military raid in Nablus, the theater recurrent and deadly clashes in the north of the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Authority.
This is the deadliest incursion into the West Bank since at least 2005, tied with that of January 26 in Jenin, also in the northern West Bank, during which 10 Palestinians, including fighters and a woman in her 60s, had been killed.
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Antonio Guterres judged that the situation "
in the occupied Palestinian territory was the most inflammable for years
" with "
tensions at the highest
" in a context of "
blocked
" Israeli-Palestinian "
peace process
".
“
Our immediate priority must be to prevent further escalation, reduce tensions and restore calm
,” pleaded the secretary general, in the presence of the Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour.
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