Israeli settlements expanded: UN
News Desk || risingbd.com
![Israeli settlements expanded: UN Israeli settlements expanded: UN](https://cdn.risingbd.com/media/imgAll/2024March/en/Israel-2403081535.jpg)
The United Nations rights chief has said that Israeli settlements have expanded in the occupied Palestinian territories.
As a result, it has constituted a war crime and risks eliminating any practical possibility of a viable Palestinian state.
Volker Turk said there had been a drastic acceleration in Israel's illegal settlement building in the occupied West Bank, at the same time as it wages a relentless war in the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
The UN high commissioner for human rights said creating and expanding settlements amounted to the transfer by Israel of its own civilian population into occupied territories.
Israel seized the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
It is illegal under international law for Israel to establish settlements in these Palestinian territories.
Despite opposition abroad, Israel has in recent decades build dozens of settlements across the West Bank.
They are now home to more than 490,000 Israelis, living in the same territory as around three million Palestinians.
Dhaka/Mukul