The U.N. human rights chief said collective punishment by Israel of Palestinian civilians and their forced evacuation, as well as atrocities committed by Palestinian armed groups on Oct. 7 and their continued holding of hostages, amount to war crimes.
Quick Read
- U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk condemns collective punishment and forced evacuation by Israel as war crimes.
- Türk also categorizes atrocities by Palestinian armed groups and the holding of hostages as war crimes.
- Speaking from the Egypt-Gaza border, Türk describes the situation in Gaza as a “living nightmare” that must not continue.
- He calls for respect of international laws to protect civilians and allow aid into Gaza, home to about 2.3 million people.
- The U.N. is concerned about an orphanage in northern Gaza with 300 children in need, but cannot reach them due to unsafe conditions.
- Türk empathizes with the suffering of those affected by the violence on both sides and calls for an end to the conflict.
- Gaza’s hospitals, particularly in Khan Younis, struggle under Israeli siege, leading to a rise in premature births.
- The siege has resulted in power cuts and shortages of essentials, placing infants in incubators at risk of death.
- Israel conducted airstrikes on Syrian military positions, causing material damage and reportedly injuring three people.
- Syria and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights report that the strikes targeted areas in Sweida province and near Damascus.
- Israel, which usually does not confirm such strikes, aims to prevent Iranian military presence in Syria but has not commented on the recent events.
The Associated Press has the story:
UN Rights Chief: Gaza turned into a ‘Living Nightmare’ by Israel-Hamas war
Newslooks- GENEVA —(AP)
The U.N. human rights chief said collective punishment by Israel of Palestinian civilians and their forced evacuation, as well as atrocities committed by Palestinian armed groups on Oct. 7 and their continued holding of hostages, amount to war crimes.
Volker Türk, standing in front of Egypt’s Rafah border crossing into Gaza, told reporters Wednesday: “These are the gates to a living nightmare.”
“We have fallen off a precipice. This cannot continue,” he said later in Cairo.
Türk said international human rights and humanitarian law must be respected to help protect civilians and allow desperately needed aid to reach Gaza’s beleaguered population of some 2.3 million people.
He said the U.N. rights office received reports in recent days about an unspecified orphanage in northern Gaza with 300 children who need urgent help, but communications were down and access were impassable and unsafe, so “we cannot get to them.”
“I feel, in my innermost being, the pain, the immense suffering of every person whose loved one has been killed in a kibbutz, in a Palestinian refugee camp, hiding in a building or as they were fleeing,” Türk said. “We all must feel this shared pain — and end this nightmare.”
GAZA HOSPITALS STRAIN UNDER ISRAELI SIEGE, WITH PREMATURE BIRTHS ON THE RISE
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza City — Hospitals in Gaza are nearing collapse under Israel’s wartime siege, which has cut power and deliveries of food, fuel and other necessities to the territory.
Inside the maternity department at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, the workload has doubled because of the mass displacement from Gaza’s north. That’s according to neonatal specialist Dr. Asaad al-Nawajha, who said Wednesday his team has seen an increase in premature births as the monthlong war intensifies.
Shouq Hararah is one of those mothers. She says her delivery took place with “no proper birth procedures, no anesthesia, painkillers or anything.”
“I gave birth to twins. The boy was discharged, but the girl remains in the maternity ward,” she said.
Standing before a row of beeping incubators, al-Nawajha emphasized the war’s life-threatening consequences.
“All of our work depends on electricity; all the machines you see here rely on it,” the doctor said. “When the electricity is cut, these devices stop working, and all the babies will face certain death.”
SYRIA SAYS ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES HIT MILITARY POSITIONS
Israel airstrikes hit several Syrian military positions late Wednesday, Syrian state media reported.
Quoting an unnamed military source, state news agency SANA said the strikes caused material damage, and did not mention any casualties nor the locations where the airstrikes took place. Pro-government radio station Sham FM said the sounds of explosions could be heard in southeast Sweida province and in some suburbs of the capital, Damascus.
Meanwhile, Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike in Sweida province targeted an air defense and radar unit, while at least three strikes in suburbs near Damascus were not far from Syria’s military airbase and wounded three people, without giving further details.
Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment next door, has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of neighboring Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges them. Israel did not immediately comment on the alleged airstrikes.
