UN: West Bank on the Brink of a Major Explosion
The UN Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Ramiz Alakbarov, has issued a warning about the potential for an explosion of conflict following brutal actions by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank. These attacks have been carried out openly in territory recognised by the international community as Palestinian.
In his address on Tuesday local time before the UN Security Council (UNSC) on the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue, Alakbarov stated that as of 10 August 2026, 76 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank throughout 2026, including 18 minors.
He added that in 2026 alone, 3,800 Palestinians—nearly half of them children—had lost their homes due to settler violence, building demolitions, and evictions.
“Settler violence has reached unprecedented levels,” he stressed, noting that the UN had documented more than 1,430 incidents this year affecting around 260 Palestinian communities.
“The pattern is clear,” he said: Palestinians are forced to leave their homes in various areas of the West Bank before settlers take over the vacated land. He noted that attacks by Israeli settlers, previously concentrated in Area C, are now increasingly reported in Area B and even Area A.
The UNSC convened this session—the second in two weeks amid escalating violence affecting Palestinians in the West Bank—at the request of European members of the Council, supported by Bahrain, China, Pakistan, and the Russian Federation.
Meanwhile, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Hannan Sulieman recounted the story of a grandmother in the West Bank who was afraid to leave her home after a grenade was thrown into her kitchen while her grandchildren were inside.
“The fundamental spaces of childhood—homes, classrooms, streets, and neighbourhoods—are increasingly becoming unsafe places,” she warned.
Between January 2024 and July 2026, the UN verified the deaths of 174 Palestinian children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem—“more than one child every week,” she said to illustrate the situation.
More than 1,500 children have been injured, with nearly half wounded by live ammunition. In the same period, three Israeli children were killed and 15 others injured.
In addition, she revealed that 355 Palestinian children from the West Bank are being held in Israeli military detention—“the highest number in eight years.” She urged the UN Security Council to protect children, end the forced displacement of Palestinian families, protect access to education and health services, and ensure the safety of humanitarian operations.
“Children in the West Bank have the same rights as children anywhere,” she said, adding: “The right to live, to learn, to be protected, and to imagine a future free from violence and fear.”