The top human rights official at the United Nations condemned Israel’s military assault on Gaza in a particularly strong statement on Thursday and warned that an attack on Rafah would add a new level of horror to the war.
The terrorist attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups on October 7 were “abhorrent and completely wrong,” said Volker Turk, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights. But, he added, “so is the brutality of the Israeli response.”
He presented the toll of its military campaign: what the United Nations estimates are 100,000 dead, wounded or missing Palestinians, equivalent to one in 20 Gazans. the unprecedented number of UN staff and journalists killed; approximately 17,000 Palestinian children orphaned or separated from their families.
“There seem to be no limits, no words to describe the atrocities unfolding before our eyes in Gaza,” he said in a speech to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. “This is carnage.”
Mr Türk opened a debate in the Council on a report by his office on developments in Gaza and the West Bank, highlighting the human and natural devastation of the war in Gaza and the “deeply discriminatory control systems” and “endless humiliation” of Israel. policies in the occupied territories.
His statement drew a rebuke from Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Meirav Eilon Shahar, who condemned it as an “insult” to the victims of the October 7 attack.
Ms. Eilon Shahar said the United Nations and the Council had ignored Israel’s security concerns for years, and noted that Mr. Türk’s statement did not mention the hundreds of Israelis killed in attacks before and after October 7. “Don’t they matter?” he asked.
Ms Eilon Shahar defended Israel’s campaign, saying its approach to dealing with terrorist groups using civilians as human shields was in line with international law. Turning to identify two former hostages behind her, Aviva Siegel and Raz Ben-Ami, whose husbands are still being held in Gaza, she said the high commissioner had reduced them to a “mere footnote” in the council’s discussion.
Mr. Türk said Israel’s blockade and siege of Gaza amounts to collective punishment of its population, which is a war crime, and may amount to using hunger as a weapon of war, also a war crime. “All the people in Gaza are in immediate danger of starvation,” he said, and many in the northern part of the territory, which international aid agencies have been trying to reach for weeks, are already reportedly starving.
Israel’s planned ground offensive in Rafah “will take the nightmare imposed on the people of Gaza into a new, dystopian dimension,” he added, urging influential states to try to prevent it.
The UN human rights office has documented several incidents that may amount to war crimes by Israeli forces, Mr Türk said, warning of a real risk that any weapons supplied to Israel could be used in violations of international law. . In statements addressed to Israel’s main arms suppliers, a list led by the United States, he said countries should stop allowing such violations.
The United States has said it supports Israel’s right to self-defense and that American officials have made it clear that Israel must comply with international humanitarian law, including taking steps to minimize harm to civilians. Israel has rejected allegations that it has committed war crimes in its operations.
