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Israeli policy in West Bank 'close to ethnic cleansing', says Ehud Olmert
The former Israeli premier decried his country's actions and policy in the West Bank just as the Israeli government announced radical plans to exert control of even more Palestinian territory.
Former Prime Minister Olmert has told Euronews Israel is responsible for the ongoing violence in the West Bank, where Israeli settlers have attacked and displaced Palestinians from their homes.
“No one can blame anyone else but the Israelis that live in the West Bank and the government that supports them, who are perpetrating the hostilities inhuman against non-involved Palestinians”, Olmert told the Europe Today show from his home in Tel Aviv.
“This is something that comes close to an attempt to make ethnic cleansing", he said. "And I speak up everywhere I can in the loudest voice I have in order to condemn it, because this is not something which is tolerable or which is acceptable by people that have different values of humanity and compassion.”
Settler activities against Palestinians have increased since Hamas launched a massive attack on Israelis from Gaza on 7 October 2023.
In 2025, a total of 240 Palestinians, including 55 children, were killed in the West Bank. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 225 were killed by Israeli forces and nine by Israeli settlers; in six cases, the identity of the killers remains uncertain
In its Humanitarian Update on the West Bank, OCHA also reports that in 2025, more than 830 Palestinians were injured by Israeli settlers in settler attacks, an average of two people injured per day.
Israeli authorities also forcibly evicted two Palestinian families from their homes in the Batn al-Hawa neighbourhood in the village of Silwan in East Jerusalem in favour of an Israeli settler organisation.
Meanwhile, the Israeli security cabinet has announced new measures which would “dramatically” change land registration and procedures required to own land in the West Bank in a bid to clear the way for Israeli settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The decisions “are intended to remove decades-old barriers, repeal discriminatory Jordanian legislation, and enable accelerated development of settlement on the ground”, Defence Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement on Sunday.
“We will continue to bury the idea of a Palestinian state”, said Smotrich.
French judicial authorities have issued warrants for two Franco-Israeli activists accused of trying to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, with investigators examining whether the actions could amount to complicity in genocide.
Issued on: 04/02/2026 - RFI
The warrants, issued in July last year, target Nili Kupfer-Naouri, linked to Israel is Forever, a pro-Israel advocacy group, and Rachel Touitou, associated with Tsav 9, an activist group opposing the delivery of aid to Gaza.
They require both women to appear before an investigating magistrate but do not order their arrest.
Lawyers for the non-governmental organisations that filed the complaint said the case is the first time a national legal system has examined whether blocking humanitarian aid could qualify as complicity in genocide under international law.
The allegations relate to actions said to have taken place between January and November 2024, including a specific incident in May.
Investigators believe the two activists tried to block aid trucks heading to Gaza at the Nitzana and Kerem Shalom crossings, which are key entry points for humanitarian supplies.
UN investigation labels Gaza violence as genocide prompting Israeli backlash
Legal threshold tested
The warrants followed complaints filed by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights along with rights groups Al-Haq and Al-Mezan.
Their lawyer, Clémence Bectarte, said the investigation is unprecedented in genocide law and argued that deliberately preventing aid from reaching civilians in a war zone could meet the legal threshold for criminal responsibility.
In addition to the main allegation of complicity in genocide, both activists are also suspected of public provocation to commit genocide after allegedly calling for aid to be stopped from entering Gaza.
Investigators may expand the case, with warrants potentially issued for around 10 other individuals.
Accused deny wrongdoing
Lawyers for the two activists reject the accusations and say their actions have been misrepresented.
Olivier Pardo, who represents Kupfer-Naouri, said she took part in pacifist protests against what she believes is the diversion and resale of humanitarian aid by Hamas and other groups.
Kupfer-Naouri has described the investigation as “anti-semitic madness.” She is currently in Israel and has said she is ready to speak to French investigators.
Touitou has also denied the allegations, writing on social media that peacefully protesting against a terrorist organisation’s handling of aid should not be criminalised.
The case is part of a wider series of legal actions in France linked to the Gaza war.
These include complaints over alleged war crimes and over the Hamas attack that triggered the conflict on 7 October 2023.
(with newswires)
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