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GENEVA — The situation in the West Bank has become "alarming and urgent", the United Nations said on Friday, citing in particular an escalation of violence by Israeli settlers towards Palestinians.

From October 7 to Thursday, 132 Palestinians, including 41 children, had been killed in the West Bank while two Israeli soldiers also perished, the UN rights office said.

Much of the world's attention has been focused on the Gaza Strip since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7.

But "the situation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is alarming and urgent, amid the increasing and multi-layered human rights violations of Palestinians occurring there", spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell told reporters in Geneva.

She said Israeli forces were increasingly using military tactics and weapons in law enforcement operations, including an operation involving air strikes on the Jenin refugee camp.

"Settler violence, which was already at record levels, has also escalated dramatically, averaging seven attacks a day. In more than a third of these attacks, firearms were used," Throssell said.

She said in many cases settlers were accompanied by Israeli soldiers.

"Along with the near total impunity for settler violence, we are concerned that armed settlers have been acting with the acquiescence and collaboration of Israeli forces and authorities."

She said Israel, as the occupying power, had to ensure the safety and protection of the occupied population.

"Entire communities are being forced from their land by this violence," Throssell said, adding that nearly 1,000 Palestinians from at least 15 herding communities had been forced from their homes since October 7.

Throssell said despite hundreds of settlers being involved in daily violence, since October 7 Israeli forces had reportedly arrested only two settlers for assaulting Palestinians and killing one Palestinian farmer.

Israeli forces have arrested almost 2,000 Palestinians, she added, noting that two have died in custody.

With many roads and checkpoints closed, some of the most vulnerable Palestinian communities have been left without access to essential goods and services, said Throssell.

MANAMA — Bahrain’s lower house of parliament announced on Thursday the halting of economic ties with Israel and the return of ambassadors on both sides over the Israel’s war on Gaza, although there was no government confirmation.

“The Council of Representatives confirms that the Israeli ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain has left Bahrain, and the Kingdom of Bahrain decided to return the Bahraini ambassador from Israel to the country,” a statement said.

“Economic relations with Israel have also been halted,” said the statement from the lower house, which does not have executive powers.

The move is “in support of the Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the brotherly Palestinian people”, it said.

Abdulnabi Salman, parliament’s first deputy speaker, confirmed the decision to AFP, saying the “ongoing conflict in Gaza cannot tolerate silence”.

Bahrain and Israel established diplomatic relations in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords. 

Under the accords, Israel also established ties with the United Arab Emirates and Morocco.

GAZA STRIP, Occupied Palestine — The health ministry in Gaza said on Thursday at least 27 people were killed in an Israeli strike near a UN school in the Jabalia refugee camp.

"The bodies of 27 martyrs were recovered and a large number of wounded," said ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra in a toll AFP was unable to independently verify.

AFP footage showed several casualties as crowds of people rushed to help them.

"Children under 10 were simply buying from the canteen and were cut into pieces," cried a woman in the school yard.

There was no immediate comment from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which runs the school.

Further south in Bureij refugee camp, Gaza's civil defence authority said at least 15 people were killed in Israeli strikes.

"The planes struck the whole neighbourhood, they pulled me out from under the rubble," said Bureij resident Hanan Abdulhadi, 50, with blood running down her face.

Carrying his wounded two-year-old son, resident Mohammed Karajeh, 27, said "the whole house fell on us" with more than 20 homes destroyed.

Gaza's health ministry said 9,061 people have been killed in nearly four weeks of Israeli strikes and the recent ground assault.

RAMALLAH, Occupied Palestine — Three Palestinians were killed Thursday by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Violence has surged across the West Bank for months and intensified further since the start of the Israeli war against the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday in El Bireh, near the seat of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, two Palestinians, Ayham Al Shafei, 14 and Yazan Shiha, 24, were killed and two others wounded when Israeli troops opened fire during a raid, the Palestinian health ministry said.

A 19-year-old Palestinian, Qusai Quran, was killed by Israeli forces during a raid on Qalqilya in the northern West Bank, according to the ministry, reporting two others were wounded.

 'Severe abuse' 

Also on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry reported the death of 14-year-old Hamdan Hamdan of wounds sustained on Monday by Israeli fire in a village near Nablus.

For several months, the West Bank has seen increasing Israeli forces raids, attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers.

According to the Palestinian ministry, Israeli forces and settlers have killed around 130 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7.

In the same period around 1,900 have been arrested by Israeli occupation forces, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group.

Some media and rights organisations have said videos circulating on social media show Israeli soldiers filming the abuse and humiliation of detained Palestinians.

In a statement this week, Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said it "has documented severe abuse and torture against Palestinian civilians and detainees at the hands of the Israeli army".

The NGO said Palestinians near Hebron in the south of the West Bank had been "dragged and assaulted by Israeli soldiers".

"The Palestinian civilians in the footage have been stripped of their clothes, have their hands and feet tied, and appear to have been left outdoors for hours at a time," the statement said.

The United States warned on Wednesday that violence by settlers in the West Bank was "incredibly destabilising".

A State Department spokesman called settler violence "counterproductive to Israel's long-term security" and said Washington had been clear with Israel that it "needs to stop".

RAMALLAH, Occupied Palestine — At least four Palestinians were killed during Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said on Wednesday, as violence there continued in tandem with the Israeli war against Gaza.

Three people were killed during a raid in the northern city of Jenin, while another was shot dead in Tulkarem, also in the north, the Ramallah-based health ministry said.

The latest incident came as Palestinians declared a general strike across the territory, with shops shuttered in Ramallah.

“The most important thing we demand is to stop injustice and tyranny, to stop killing innocent people, and refrain from arbitrary revenge,” 26-year-old Ramallah resident Fakhri Muhammad Shreiteh told AFP.

Violence in the West Bank has been on the rise since early last year, marked by frequent army raids, attacks by Israeli settlers and Palestinian attacks on Israeli forces and settlers.

More than 120 West Bank Palestinians have been killed since the Gaza war began on October 7 after Hamas fighters stormed over the border.

Since then, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says more than 8,500 people have been killed in Israel’s bombardment, two-thirds of them women and children.

UNITED NATIONS, United States — The United Nations on Wednesday decried strikes on Gaza's largest refugee camp that killed scores of people in attacks that Israel said targeted a Hamas commander.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "is appalled over the escalating violence in Gaza", his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

This includes "the killing of Palestinians, including women and children in Israeli air strikes in residential areas of the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp," Dujarric said.

A strike on the camp killed at least 47 people Tuesday — including a Hamas commander involved in the October 7  surprise attacks, according to Israel.

"This is just the latest atrocity to befall the people of Gaza where the fighting has entered an even more terrifying phase, with increasingly dreadful humanitarian consequences," Martin Griffiths, the UN humanitarian chief, said in a statement.

He said "the world seems unable, or unwilling, to act", adding "this cannot go on. We need a step change".

Dujarric said that the secretary-general reiterated that all parties "must abide by international humanitarian law including the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution".

He also called on them to “bring an end to this shocking violence, pain and suffering.”

Griffiths, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, released his statement after a two-day visit to the region.

The head of the UN agency that works to help Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, managed to reach Gaza on Wednesday via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, said Dujarric.

Lazzarini, who leads UNRWA, is the most senior UN official to be allowed into Gaza since the war began.

UNRWA has seen 70 of its staffers killed in the war so far.

“He said that the staff told him that fuel is very much needed and than more than ever humanitarian policy is also needed,” Dujarric said.

ISMAILIA, Egypt — Seventy-six wounded Palestinians and 335 foreigners or dual-nationals were allowed to cross from the war-torn Gaza Strip for Egypt on Wednesday, an Egyptian official at the Rafah crossing said.

It is the first crossing of civilians allowed into Egypt from Gaza since Israel placed a "total siege" on the Palestinian territory.

By 4:30 pm (14:30 GMT), ambulances had transported 76 wounded Palestinians into Egypt and six buses took 335 foreign passport holders, the official told AFP, who was reached by phone in Ismailia.

The Egyptian authorities had said they would allow 90 wounded Palestinians and around 545 foreigners and dual nationals to cross on Wednesday.

"The Rafah terminal will open again on Thursday to allow the passage of more foreigners and dual citizens," a security source told AFP.

Four Italians were among the foreigners who left Gaza on Wednesday, Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on X, formerly Twitter.

"I just spoke with the first four Italians to leave the Gaza Strip. They are tired but in good health, assisted by the Italian consul in Cairo. We continue to work to get everyone else out," he added.

A "first group" of five French nationals was also among those allowed to leave the besieged territory, France's foreign ministry said.

"We continue our efforts so that all our compatriots, our staff, and their families who wish to do so can leave Gaza as soon as possible," it added, noting concern for about 50 French nationals and their families.

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Congress there had been an estimated 1,000 people, including 400 Americans and their close relatives, stuck in Gaza seeking evacuation.

GAZA STRIP, Occupied Palestine — As Israel rained bombs on Gaza, huge explosions ripped through a crowded Palestinian refugee camp, killing dozens and leaving two giant craters in the densely populated area.

Wails filled the dusty air as volunteers clawed through the concrete blocks and twisted metal in a desperate search for survivors and bodies, with AFP video footage showing at least 47 corpses being recovered.

Gaza's health ministry reported an initial toll of more than 50 dead, 150 wounded and dozens buried under the rubble, and condemned what it called "a heinous Israeli massacre" at the Jabalia camp.

Israel did not immediately comment on the blasts or the reported toll in Jabalia, which is located in the territory's north outside Gaza City, an area where ground battles have raged nearby and Israel has told Palestinians to flee.

One refugee camp resident, Ragheb Aqal, 41, likened the explosion to “an earthquake” and spoke of his horror at seeing “homes buried under the rubble and body parts and martyrs and wounded in huge numbers”.

The carnage came amid international warnings about the spiralling bloodshed and mounting humanitarian crisis in Gaza, on a day Israeli troops and Hamas had engaged in “fierce battles” in the north.

Israel reported two of its soldiers were killed inside Gaza.

Warplanes kept up a relentless barrage of strikes on Gaza, where the health ministry said, before the Jabalia blasts, that 8,525 people had died, including over 3,500 children.

Ahmed Al Kahlout, a Gazan living near an Orthodox church cultural centre destroyed in another strike, voiced the growing desperation inside the war-torn, crowded and besieged coastal territory.

“We want to live like any other people in this world, to live quietly,” he said.

“We don’t know what to do. The least they can do is give us a truce, give us three hours, a temporary truce or a ceasefire.”

The humanitarian toll has sparked global concern, with aid groups and the United Nations warning time is running out for many of the territory’s 2.4 million people denied access to food, water, fuel and medicine.

Surgeons are conducting amputations on hospital floors without anaesthetic, and children are forced to drink salty water, said Jean-Francois Corty, vice-president of Medecins du Monde, which has 20 staff on the ground.

Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals as military headquarters and civilians as “human shields”, charges the group dismisses as “baseless” propaganda.

At a funeral in southern Gaza, tearful mourners cradled the bodies of relatives wrapped in white shrouds before burying them with their bare hands.

“We ask the world to show sympathy for the children to stop these massacres,” Yusef Hijazi, the grandfather of one victim, told AFP.