U.N. brief warns of rapid settlement expansion, raids on UNRWA and withheld Palestinian revenues
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Summary
In a Security Council statement, Rameez Rameez Alakbarov described intensified raids, settler violence and demolition in the occupied West Bank, cited legislative and operational pressure on relief agencies including UNRWA, and said Israel is withholding roughly $2.5 billion in Palestinian clearance revenues.
Rameez Rameez Alakbarov told the Security Council that negative trends in the occupied West Bank are "entrenched daily" and that repeated council warnings have not produced meaningful action on the ground.
He said Israeli forces conducted intensified raids across Jenin, Nablus, Hebron and Ramallah in late December and early January, raised concerns about the use of lethal force and cited a case in which a 16‑year‑old boy was shot and killed during a raid in Kabbatya (as cited by the speaker). He also referred to reports of treatment and deaths in custody.
The envoy described ongoing Palestinian attacks against Israelis but emphasized the escalation of settler violence, saying repeated settler attacks led to the displacement of the entire community of Hirdbet Yanoun and the forcible displacement of some 80 households from Ras Ayan Auja in Jericho Governorate (speaker‑attributed figures).
On planning and approvals, Alakbarov said settlement expansion continued rapidly: approximately 1,860 housing units were advanced in one area and about 2,850 housing units were advanced in East Jerusalem, including plans for roughly 1,500 units in a government complex and another plan for approximately 950 units (all figures cited by the speaker).
He said the Knesset passed legislation on 29 December (as cited) instructing authorities to seize certain compounds and to deny services to an entity named in the transcript, and reported that Israeli forces raided a UNRWA health center and UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem and demolished buildings, actions he described as "flagrant violation[s] of international law and the privileges and immunities of the United Nations." Alakbarov called on Israel to reverse decisions to suspend NGO operations and to respect privileges and immunities.
Alakbarov said the unilateral withholding by Israel of Palestinian clearance revenues has produced a growing fiscal crisis for the Palestinian Authority; he said nearly 2,500,000,000.0 US dollars of clearance revenues remain withheld (speaker‑attributed figure).
He warned that these policies are deepening occupation, fragmenting Palestinian space, and undermining prospects for a two‑state solution, and urged the council to commit to implementing the next phase of the ceasefire plan and to support steps that would enable a legitimate, reunified Palestinian government and a political process toward a two‑state solution.
