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UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Monday that the "specter of ethnic cleansing" is increasingly looming over the occupied West Bank, condemning the expansion of Israeli settlements and the escalation of settler violence.
During a press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in the New Administrative Capital in Cairo, Guterres said he is "deeply concerned about Israeli practices in the occupied West Bank."
Guterres' statement comes a day after the Israeli occupation army began an operation in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, where it ordered about 250 families to leave, some in the middle of the night, in response to the killing of two soldiers.
The Palestinian Authority said on Sunday that about 2,700 people had been displaced from their homes in Hebron, while the Hebron Municipality announced on Monday that more than 3,000 people had been displaced as a result of the ongoing Israeli military operation.
Guterres pointed to the escalation of settler violence and the attacks on Palestinian families, journalists, and diplomats.
He continued, "We are witnessing an increasingly coercive climate, with the specter of ethnic cleansing looming ever larger," emphasizing, "This must stop."
Guterres had met earlier with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
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