GENEVA, Feb 26, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The West Bank is facing an "alarming
spillover" of the Gaza war, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian
refugees said Wednesday, with dozens killed since Israel expanded its
operations there last month.

"The West Bank is becoming a battlefield," Philippe Lazzarini warned on X,
saying that "more than 50 people, including children, have been reported
killed since the Israeli forces' operation started".

"This must end."

Israel's military began a major raid against Palestinian militants in the
West Bank's north a over a month ago, just after a truce went into effect in
the Gaza Strip, a separate Palestinian territory.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and carries out regular raids
against Palestinian militants, but the current offensive in the north is the
longest continuous one in the territory in two decades.

Israel on Sunday said its troops would remain for many months in refugee
camps in the northern West Bank, after tens of thousands of Palestinians
living there were displaced by an intensifying, weeks-long military
operation.

The expansion of Israeli operations in the West Bank come as tensions surge
over a fragile truce deal in Gaza, which has largely halted more than 15
months of devastating war sparked by Hamas' attack on October 7, 2023.

Lazzarini said that the "destruction of public infrastructure" in the West
Bank and that "bulldozing roads and access restrictions are common place".

"People's lives have been turned upside down, bringing back traumas and
loss," he said, saying that "around 40,000 people have been forced to flee
their homes especially in refugee camps in the north".

"Fear, uncertainty and grief once again prevail."

With Palestinian camps lying "in ruins", Lazzarini added that "more than
5,000 children who normally go to UNRWA schools have been deprived of
education, some for over 10 weeks now".

"Patients cannot access healthcare, families are cut off from water,
electricity and other basic services," he said.

"More and more people are relying on humanitarian aid at a time aid agencies
are overstretched and severely under-resourced."

Since the start of the war in Gaza, Israeli troops or settler attacks have
killed at least 900 Palestinians in the West Bank, including many militants,
according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Palestinian attacks and clashes during military raids have killed at least 32
Israelis over the same period, according to official figures.