The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights accuses Israel and Hamas of war crimes
The attacks by Hamas and allied armed groups in October 2023, as well as the current siege of the Gaza Strip by Israel, constitute war crimes, according to a report submitted by High Commissioner Volker Türk to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday.
“The blockade imposed on Gaza is a collective punishment, it can be tantamount to using starvation as a weapon, and both of these intentionally committed things are war crimes,” Turk commented when presenting the report at the 55th session of the Council.
The document also considers Hamas' attacks and torture of civilians on October 7 and 8, as well as its indiscriminate firing of projectiles into Israeli cities during the current conflict, as war crimes. The attacks in October “were shocking and completely unjustified (…), but this also applies to the brutality of the Israeli reaction,” emphasized the Austrian High Commissioner in his speech.
Israel's response included “unprecedented levels of killing and maiming of Gaza civilians, including against UN staff and journalists, a humanitarian crisis due to aid restrictions, and the displacement of at least three-quarters of Gaza's population.” ” he explained. The situation was “incomparably worse” than before, although Türk also recalled that Palestinians had suffered “56 years of Israeli occupation with deeply discriminatory control systems.”
In the Gaza Strip, the situation is aggravated by “16 years of blockade, which in practice has led to 2.2 million people being taken prisoner and devastated the local economy,” he explained.
The High Commissioner used his intervention to warn of a possible large-scale Israeli military operation in Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip, which he said “will take the Gaza Strip into a new dystopian dimension if it materializes.” .” given that 1.5 million displaced Gazans are concentrated in the area. “A ground attack could potentially result in great loss of life, even more cruel crimes and new displacements to unsafe areas,” Turk warned.
“I cannot understand how such an operation could comply with the interim measures of the International Court of Justice,” the high commissioner said, referring to the Hague court’s ruling in January that ordered Israel to take all necessary measures to prevent genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Türk also highlighted the serious situation in the West Bank, where more than 7,000 Palestinians have been arbitrarily detained since October 7, 3,400 of them without imminent trial and more than 600 incommunicado. “Israeli leaders must accept the right of the Palestinians to live in an independent state, and the leaders of Palestine must take into account Israel’s right to exist in peace and security,” the Austrian High Commissioner concluded. (EFE)