Islamonweb

United Nations human rights experts have warned that the current situation in Jerusalem risks causing irreversible damage to the city’s historic social and religious fabric.

In a statement released Friday, the experts said that the war in Gaza has been accompanied by accelerating measures in Jerusalem that alter the city’s demographic composition, religious character and legal status.

They warned that these actions are destroying the remnants of the pluralistic character that Jerusalem has represented for centuries for Muslims, Christians and Jews.

“What is being done to this world symbol of spiritual coexistence and shared heritage is irreversible,” the experts said.

The statement highlights an increase in extrajudicial killings, forced displacement and large-scale demolitions in occupied East Jerusalem. At the same time, checkpoints and closures are increasingly isolating Palestinian communities from their social, economic and religious life.

“These are not security measures,” the experts said, arguing that they represent elements of a systematic effort to entrench exclusive control.

Statistics cited by the UN experts show that 144 Palestinians were reportedly killed in Jerusalem’s governorate between 2021 and 2025, while 11,555 individuals were arrested.

During the same period, authorities issued 2,386 deportation orders and carried out more than 1,732 demolitions and land levelling operations.

The report also raised alarm over growing tensions around religious sites. In 2025 alone, 73,871 settler incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound were reported.

The experts warned that such actions violate international humanitarian and human rights law and could amount to war crimes.