A United Nations official warned that Israel’s consolidated control over the occupied territories hampers development and exacerbates the living conditions of people there.

A United Nations press statement said that Tarik Alami, Director of the Emerging and Conflict-Related Issues Division of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), introduced the Secretary-General’s report on “Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources” while noting that Israel continues to consolidate its control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, hampering development and exacerbating living conditions, despite ongoing hardships due to the COVID‑19 crisis, as reported in a UN press statement.

Alami made his remarks in the virtual seventy-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly’s Second Committee (Economic and Financial).

He said that Israel’s “discriminatory policies and practices include zoning policies preventing construction, excessive use of force, arrest and arbitrary detention of thousands of Palestinians, and documented cases of torture.”

Noting that Israeli policies have disrupted livelihoods and continue to deprive Palestinians of access to their natural resources, he said that while Israeli colonial settlements have high-quality water, only 10 percent have access to this vital resource in Gaza.  After three years of decline in the gross domestic product (GDP), it fell to its lowest level in 2020, with 26 percent unemployed and 1.4 million in Gaza suffering from food insecurity and malnutrition.