United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk called for an end to the “carnage” in Gaza, saying: “There seem to be no borders and no words to capture the horrors unfolding before our eyes in Gaza.”
“More than 100,000 people have been killed or injured since the beginning of October. Let me repeat again: approximately one in 20 children, women and men are dead or injured,” Turk said on Thursday during the 55th interactive dialogue on the situation of human rights in Palestine in Geneva.
He added that at least 17,000 children have been orphaned or separated from their families, while many others will bear the scars of physical and emotional trauma for a lifetime: “Today the total number of people killed has exceeded 30,000. And tens of thousands of people are missing, many are believed to be buried under the rubble of their homes. This is a bloodbath.”
Turk stressed the need to end the war in Gaza, adding that violations of international human rights and humanitarian laws, including war crimes and possibly other crimes under international law, have been committed in Gaza.
Since October 7, Israel has waged a devastating war against the besieged Gaza Strip, killing at least 30,035 people, injuring 70,457 others, and displacing more than 85% (approximately 1.9 million people) of Gaza's population, including numbers from Palestine and the United Nations.
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