UN experts, including the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, estimated Thursday that the Palestinian people “run a serious risk of genocide”, in a joint statement released in Geneva.
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“We remain convinced that the Palestinian people run a serious risk of genocide,” write these independent experts mandated by the Human Rights Council, but who do not speak on behalf of the UN, in the midst of the war between Israel and the Hamas.
“The time to act is now. Israel’s allies also bear a responsibility and must act now to prevent it from taking this disastrous path,” they said.
They expressed “increasing horror” over Israeli airstrikes on the Jabaliya refugee camp. They see it as “a flagrant violation of international law”.
AFP
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said Wednesday that Israel’s bombing of the Jabaliya Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip “may be war crimes.”
“Attacking a camp sheltering civilians, including women and children, constitutes a total violation of the rules of proportionality and distinction between combatants and civilians,” declared the experts, who believe that the bombing of this camp on a very narrow territory and very densely populated could have caused “hundreds of Palestinian deaths and injuries according to certain reports”.
They also called for the immediate release of “all civilians held captive” since the attack by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement which controls the Gaza Strip, on October 7.
“All parties must respect their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law,” the experts stressed.
“We demand a humanitarian ceasefire to ensure aid reaches those who need it most. A ceasefire also means that communication channels can be opened to secure the release of hostages.”
AFP
Hamas’ unprecedented attacks have left more than 1,400 dead, most of them civilians, often brutally murdered, and more than 240 hostages held in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel immediately responded with intense and incessant artillery and aerial bombardments on the Gaza Strip. According to Hamas health authorities, they left more than 9,000 dead, including 3,760 children.