Israel's "collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza" is a war crime that must be "ended immediately," the United Nations Human Rights Office said today, after three weeks of siege of that Palestinian territory. , without water, food, fuel or electricity.
"For almost three weeks, Palestinian civilians have suffered incessant bombardments from Israel by air, land and sea; thousands of them have died, some among the remains of homes, mosques or destroyed bakeries," the office spokeswoman said at a press conference. of the UN Ravina Shamdasani.
The official source revealed that the entire families of two organization workers have died in the attacks.
"We receive terrible testimonies from parents who write their names on their children's arms to identify the bodies in the future," he stressed, indicating that 57 United Nations workers have died in the hostilities that began on October 7.
The spokesperson for the office headed by High Commissioner Volker Türk also described as a war crime the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Gazans by order of Israel, through calls for the evacuation of the north of the strip that also occur in a moment when "nowhere is safe."
"Despite his repeated orders to the residents of northern Gaza to go to the south, suggesting that it is safe, attacks by Israeli forces in the center and south of the territory have intensified in recent days," the spokesperson stressed.
Shamdasani also found it "difficult to reconcile with international humanitarian law" Israel's use of long-range explosives in densely populated areas of Gaza, which have caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and, according to the Hamas government, more than 7,000 dead.
"The humanitarian catastrophe is growing for 2.2 million Gazans locked up and punished collectively," summarized the spokesperson, who reiterated High Commissioner Türk's call to end the violence and seek "alternatives to the current carnage."
"It is of paramount importance that all those with influence negotiate a way out of this disastrous and prolonged situation," he insisted.
