News - Middle East: A major international humanitarian organization says Israeli military forces are engaging in “unwarranted use of lethal force” against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said in a statement on Friday that the first half of the current year saw a serious escalation of violence and rights violations in the Palestinian territory, noting that more than 1,000 people were forcibly displaced and almost 160,000 negatively impacted by demolitions.

Israeli forces and settlers killed 228 Palestinians, among them 58 children, from January to June 2024, according to the NRC, a jump of 65 percent on the same window last year.

“The data indicates that Israeli forces are deploying unwarranted use of lethal force against Palestinian civilians,” NRC country director in Palestine Ana Povrzenic said in a press release.

“We cannot separate the worsening conditions in the West Bank from the actions of senior Israeli officials aimed to establish sovereignty over the West Bank, in violation of international law,” she emphasized.