He reiterated a warning against launching a full-scale incursion on Rafah, where approximately 1.2 million civilians are densely populated. He cautioned that such actions could result in “further atrocity crimes.”
‘A child killed or wounded every 10 minutes’: UN Rights Chief
U.N. human rights chief Volkan Turk’s remarks came after at least nine children among 16 Palestinians were killed on Sunday in an Israeli bombing targeting several homes east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
Volkan Turk, the United Nations human rights chief, criticized the recent series of Israeli strikes on Gaza, which resulted in the deaths of mostly women and children.
Turk’s remarks came after at least nine children among 16 Palestinians were killed on Sunday in an Israeli bombing targeting several homes east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Turk, in his statement, condemned a series of Israeli strikes on Rafah in the past few days that killed mostly children and women, repeating his warning against a full-scale incursion on the overcrowded area of 64 square kilometers (25 square miles), where more than 1.4 million Palestinians have been forcibly cornered.
‘Every 10 minutes, a child is killed or wounded’
“Every 10 minutes, a child is killed or wounded. They are protected under the laws of war, and yet they are ones who are disproportionately paying the ultimate price in this war,” Turk said.
“The latest images of a premature child taken from the womb of her dying mother, of the adjacent two houses where 15 children and five women were killed – this is beyond warfare,” he added.
Full-scale incursion on Rafah could lead to ‘further atrocity crimes’
Turk reiterated such an operation to Rafah would lead to further breaches of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, as well as it would “risk more deaths, injuries and displacement on a large scale – even further atrocity crimes, for which those responsible would be held accountable.”
UN’s Turk ‘horrified’ by Gaza mass graves reports
He also said he was “horrified” by the destruction of the Nasser and Al Shifa medical complexes and the reported discovery of mass graves in and around these locations, calling for “independent, effective and transparent” investigations into the deaths.
At least 283 bodies have been recovered so far from the mass grave at the Nasser Medical Complex after the Israeli army withdrew from the city on April 7 following a four-month ground offensive, according to Gaza’s civil defense agency.
Hospitals turned from a place of healing into massive graveyard
“Given the prevailing climate of impunity, this should include international investigators,” Turk said, noting that hospitals are entitled to special protection under international humanitarian law and called “the intentional killing” of civilians and detainees a war crime.
He added that medical staff and evacuees who had managed to leave the hospital before the Israeli army’s withdrawal had described scenes of “horror, mass killings and arrests to the point the entire hospital turned from a place of healing into a massive graveyard.”
On “grave human rights violations” continuing in the occupied West Bank, Turk said that despite international condemnation of massive settler attacks from April 12-14 facilitated by the Israeli Security Forces (ISF), “settler violence has continued with the support, protection, and participation of the ISF.”
‘No safe places in Gaza’
Asked on the reports that Israel will expand so-called “humanitarian zones” in Gaza ahead of its Rafah ground attack, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani stressed: “There are no safe places in Gaza and any pretense that creating safe zones is actually dangerous.”
“What we need is an immediate cease-fire,” she reiterated.
