New York: UN Secretary-General Ant³nio Guterres stressed that the continued expansion of Israeli settlements “is dramatically altering the landscape and demographic composition of the occupied West Bank, including East Quds.”

According to National Iraqi News Agency, Guterres said that Palestinians are “increasingly confined to shrinking and disconnected areas, posing an existential threat to the possibility of establishing a contiguous, viable, and independent Palestinian state.”

This was stated by Sigrid Kaag, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, during her briefing to the UN Security Council on the implementation of Resolution 2334, which called on Israel to immediately cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The UN Coordinator indicated that during the reporting period, from December 7 to March 13, settlement activity continued at a high rate, with the occupation authorities advancing or approving approximately 10,600 housing units in settlements in the occupied West Bank, including 4,920 units in East Quds. Meanwhile, the occupying authorities demolished, seized, closed, or forced people to demolish 460 Palestinian structures, displacing 576 people, half of them children.

She said that the Secretary-General rejects the forced displacement of the Palestinian population from any part of the occupied Palestinian territory, “which constitutes a serious violation of human rights and international humanitarian law, and strongly rejects any form of ethnic cleansing.”

She added that Guterres is appalled by the “dire humanitarian situation” in the Gaza Strip. He also strongly condemned the Israeli authorities’ suspension of humanitarian aid to the Strip since March 2, urged its immediate resumption, and stressed that “humanitarian aid is non-negotiable,” reiterating that there is no alternative to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).