The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that Israel's ongoing attacks in the occupied West Bank since Oct. 7 aim to turn the Palestinian territory into "a new Gaza."

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967 and is separated from the Gaza Strip by Israeli territory, has flared alongside the Oct. 7 attacks.

Borrell said Israel was opening "a new front... with a clear objective: to turn the West Bank into a new Gaza – in rising violence, delegitimizing the Palestinian Authority and stimulating provocations to react forcefully."

Israel was also "not shying away from saying to the face of the world that the only way to reach a peaceful settlement is to annex the West Bank and Gaza," Borrell added at a ministerial meeting of the Arab League in Cairo.

He accused "radical members of the Israeli government" of trying to make it "impossible to create a future Palestinian state," which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several cabinet members have painted as a threat to Israel.

Some Israeli ministers have recently called to increase military attacks in the West Bank.

"Without action, the West Bank will become a new Gaza," Borrell said.

"And Gaza will become a new West Bank, as settlers' movements are preparing new settlements," he told the meeting.

"The international community deplores, feels, and condemns, but finds it hard to act."

Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank hit a record in 2023, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din, and the European Union has said last year saw the most settlement building permits issued in decades.

Some 490,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, in settlements that are illegal under international law, alongside three million Palestinians.

Since Oct. 7, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 662 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

At least 23 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the West Bank during the same period, Israeli officials say.

On Tuesday, Israel's military said it was "highly likely" that its forces "unintentionally" shot dead a U.S.-Turkish activist last week, during a protest in the West Bank against settlement expansion, but others, including the U.N., have called for an independent investigation into the killing.

Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a dual U.S. and Turkish national, was fatally shot by Israeli forces last Friday during a protest against illegal Israeli settlements in Beita, a town just outside the city of Nablus.

Witnesses reported that Israeli soldiers opened live fire on demonstrators. Though she was standing away from the main protest area, she was fatally shot in the head. Despite being rushed to a hospital, medical workers were unable to save her.

She arrived in the West Bank last Tuesday to volunteer as part of an effort to support and safeguard Palestinian farmers, with the International Solidarity Movement, the same organization as legendary peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was murdered by Israel as she tried to stop the demolition of a Palestinian house in Gaza in 2003.

A Palestinian eyewitness said that the Israeli sniper who killed Eygi "cried out for joy" after shooting her while an Israeli activist who was there for the protests that day said: "The soldier who did this took a kill shot. That kill shot was no isolated incident."

Eygi's killing echoes the case of American-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed similarly in 2022.

Shamdasani said Eygi became a "symbol of the systematic use of deadly force against peaceful protestors and other Palestinians in the West Bank."

The U.N. Human Rights Office insists that Israel first investigate the murder and all the other unlawful killings, Shamdasani said, adding that if Israeli fails to lead a credible investigation, the U.N. would insist on an international independent investigation into the violations allowed to take place in Palestinian territories.

The Palestinian groups considered Eygi's death as a confirmation of Israel's implementation of the policies of killing, expulsion, and ban of entry for international solidarity activists.