The words of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: “the massacre in Gaza has caused more than 30,000 deaths and must stop immediately”.

“The massacre in Gaza has caused more than 30,000 deaths and must stop immediately”, said the head of the United Nations for Human Rights, Volker Türk, on Thursday, after almost five months of continuous Israeli bombardments and mass displacements in the enclave, caused by Hamas attacks.
Türk also insisted that “it is now time for peace, responsibility, and investigations into the clear violations of international humanitarian law and possible war crimes by both parties”. Emphasizing the “unprecedented level of killings and mutilations” of civilians in the enclave, Türk noted that at least 17,000 children have been orphaned or separated from their families.

After reiterating his condemnation for the “shocking... completely unjustifiable” attacks carried out by Hamas on the 7th and 8th of October, along with the “frightening and completely wrong” hostage-taking, Türk observed that at least three out of four inhabitants of Gaza have been displaced due to the war, amid the “systematic demolition of entire neighborhoods” which has rendered Gaza largely uninhabitable.
Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council (OHCHR), which is the highest forum of the UN on rights under the auspices of the United Nations General Assembly, Türk stated that thousands of tons of munitions have been dropped by Israel on Gaza communities since October 7th. “These weapons unleash a massive high-pressure shockwave that can rupture internal organs, as well as fragmentation projectiles and intense heat causing deep burns - and they have been used in densely populated residential areas”, he said. The High Commissioner also noted that the likely “indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks by Israel have left tens of thousands of Gaza citizens displaced, presumably buried under the rubble of their homes”, before condemning the launch of “indiscriminate projectiles” by Palestinian armed groups across southern Israel and up to Tel Aviv.

Among the 47 member states of the forum, there has been nearly unanimous support for the condemnation by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights of attacks on Israeli communities by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, as well as for his appeal for the release of Israeli hostages still detained in the enclave, the immediate ceasefire, accountability for violations of the laws of war by both parties, and the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state.

For Israel, the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Meirav Eilon Shahar, denounced the attacks by "Hamas terrorists" and reiterated unfounded accusations of complicity between the United Nations and the armed group. Seated with two released hostages - Aviva Siegel and Raz Ben Ami - the Israeli delegate also insisted on her country's right to self-defense in line with international humanitarian law. "Israel is fighting on a battlefield that Hamas has created in Gaza", she said. "A battlefield where terrorists hide behind and within the civilian population. A battlefield that the United Nations has seen built around and beneath them for years and have chosen to ignore." "Israel has been told time and again that terrorists who have diverted aid, built terror tunnels, brutally killed innocent civilians, raped, decapitated, burned alive families cannot be touched because they hide among the civilian population. Yet, we have no choice. We must hunt down Hamas, or they will continue to hunt us down".

The Palestinian representative, Ibrahim Khraishi, reiterated that about 12,000 children and 8,000 women are among the victims of the ongoing conflict, citing unconfirmed reports from Thursday morning, stating that dozens of Palestinians had been killed in an incident involving Israeli forces in Gaza City while waiting for aid trucks to arrive. "Are they fighters, are they human shields?" he asked, before appealing to the international community to prevent "a new massacre" in Rafah, referring to an imminent full-scale Israeli offensive in the absence of a ceasefire agreement.

Earlier, the head of the United Nations for Human Rights, Türk, had warned of an Israeli ground assault on Rafah, where 1.5 million people are seeking refuge "despite continuous bombardments”. An Israeli offensive "would entail a potentially massive loss of human lives, further risk of atrocities, new displacement towards another distribution of unsafe places, and would sign a death sentence for any hope of effective humanitarian aid”, said the High Commissioner. "I don't see how such an operation can be consistent with the binding provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice".

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Translated by Stefania Errico

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