The brutal resumption of hostilities and its frightening impact on the civilian population underscore once again the need for an end to the violence and a political solution based on the only sustainable long-term foundation: full respect for the human rights of Palestinians. and Israelis, a representative said in a statement.
“Silence the guns and return to dialogue: the suffering inflicted on civilians is unbearable.” More violence is not the solution. “It will not bring peace or security,” Turk said, deploring the stalemate in negotiations to continue last week’s humanitarian pause.
The High Commissioner warned that the resumption and intensification of hostilities after a seven-day ceasefire could lead to even more deaths, disease and destruction than before.
“Due to Israel’s hostility and its orders for the population to leave the north and parts of the south, hundreds of thousands of people are being trapped in ever smaller areas in the southern Gaza Strip, without adequate sanitation, access to sufficient food, water and sanitation, even if Bombs are falling around them,” he said.
Hundreds of thousands of people remain at risk of being bombed and deprived of food and other essential goods in northern Gaza, he warned.
This terrible situation and the evacuation orders to the south are essentially forcing people to move, which looks like an attempt to clear the northern Gaza Strip of Palestinians, he lamented.
“International humanitarian law and human rights standards make it clear that the protection of civilians is paramount and that rapid and unhindered humanitarian access must be facilitated by all possible means to alleviate the suffering of civilians,” he stressed.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, hundreds of residents of the enclave have been killed by Israeli shelling since hostilities resumed on Friday.
On that day, the entry of aid supplies into Gaza via the Rafah border crossing was completely blocked and was also restricted on Saturday.
As a result, already limited relief efforts in Gaza have largely ceased, leading to a renewed collapse of overstretched vital services.
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