Ammon News - The UN human rights chief on Friday denounced the “unfathomable” call by an Israeli minister for a flashpoint Palestinian town to be “wiped out”, calling for an end to the violence.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made his comments on Wednesday, days after two settlers were shot dead in Huwara — killings that led Israeli settlers to attack the northern West Bank town.

“I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out,” Smotrich said. “I think the state of Israel should do it.”

Later, he tweeted that he “didn't mean to erase the village of Huwara, but only to act in a targeted way against the terrorists”.

But rights chief Volker Turk, speaking before the UN Rights Council in Geneva, denounced Smotrich's original comments as “an unfathomable statement of incitement to violence and hostility”.

Mr Smotrich, an extreme-right settler, spoke during a surge in violence in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and specifically in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the war of 1967.

The attack on Huwara late on Sunday saw hundreds of settlers set homes and cars ablaze and hurl stones, while a Palestinian man was killed in the nearby village of Zaatara.

More than 350 Palestinians were injured, most suffering from tear gas inhalation, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.

Presenting his office's latest report on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, Mr Turk warned the council on Friday that the “increasing violence is condemning innocent people on all sides to further tragedy”.

He called on “decision-makers and people on all sides … to step back from the precipice to which increasing extremism and violence have led”.

The upsurge in violence comes after last year saw the highest number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in 17 years, and the highest number of Israelis killed since 2016, Mr Turk pointed out.

“I condemn the violence that has killed and harmed so many people on both sides, and which generates overwhelming despair,” he said.

The UN rights chief called on both sides to adhere to a commitment to de-escalation reached following talks on Sunday in Jordan.