GENEVA: The UN rights chief on Tuesday condemned Israel’s ground assault on Gaza City as “utterly unacceptable”, demanding an end to the “carnage” and warning of growing evidence of genocide in the Palestinian territory.
“It is absolutely clear that this carnage must stop,” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told AFP and Reuters when asked about the launch of Israel’s long-anticipated ground assault on Gaza’s largest city.
“The whole world screams for peace. Palestinians, Israelis scream for peace. Everyone wants an end to this, and what we see is a further escalation which is totally and utterly unacceptable,” he said.
Turk highlighted that in recent days “we have seen expanding attacks in the northwestern parts of Gaza, where the population had sought shelter from previous attacks.”
He decried in particular “the ongoing bombardment of residential buildings, buildings that have served as shelters for people who have been displaced multiple times”.
Israel says ‘Gaza is burning’ as it launches ground assault
“These attacks need to stop.”
He pointed out that the Israeli military “repeatedly claimed that it is targeting so-called terrorist infrastructure”.
“So far, we haven’t seen any evidence of this,” he stressed, emphasising that “under the rules of war, an attack may never be targeted at civilians who are not taking part in hostilities.”
The UN rights chief stressed that “the people of Gaza cannot sustain yet another intensification of violence and destruction and killings and lack of humanitarian assistance that needs to come.”
“I can only think of what it means for women, malnourished children, for people with disabilities, if they are again attacked in this way,” he said.
Turk’s comments came after an independent team of UN investigators published a report concluding that Israel was committing genocide in its war in Gaza.
“We see the piling up of war crime after war crime after war crime, of crime against humanity, and potentially even more,” Turk said said.
“It’s for the court to decide whether it’s genocide or not, and we see the evidence mounting.”
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