GENEVA
\nThe United Nations on Friday condemned the staggering number of civilians killed in Israel\u2019s war in Gaza, with women and children comprising nearly 70 per cent of the thousands of deaths it verified.
\nIn a fresh report, slammed by Israel, the United Nations human rights office (OHCHR) detailed a raft of violations of international law since October 2023. Many could amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly \u201cgenocide\u201d, it warned, demanding international efforts to prevent \u201catrocity crimes\u201d and ensure accountability.
\n\u201cCivilians in Gaza have borne the brunt of the attacks, including through the initial \u2018complete siege\u2019 of Gaza by Israeli forces,\u201d the UN said.
\n\u201cConduct by Israeli forces has caused unprecedented levels of killings, death, injury, starvation, illness and disease.\u201d It pointed to \u201cthe Israeli government\u2019s continuing unlawful failures to allow, facilitate and ensure the entry of humanitarian aid, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and repeated mass displacement\u201d.
\nIsrael\u2019s mission to the UN in Geneva \u201ccategorically\u201d rejected the report, decrying \u201cthe inherent obsession of OHCHR with the demonisation of Israel\u201d.
\n\u201cGaza is now a rubble-strewn landscape,\u201d Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN rights office\u2019s activities in the Palestinian territories, said via video link from Amman.
\n\u201cWithin this dystopia of destruction and devastation, those alive are left injured, displaced and starving.\u201d
\n\u2018Systematic\u2019 cleansing
\nThe report also tackled the contentious issue of the proportion of civilians among the nearly 43,500 people killed in Gaza so far, according to the health ministry in the Palestinian territory.
\nThe UN has repeatedly said the figures are reliable despite harsh criticism by Israel. During the first six months of the attacks, the rights office said, it had managed to verify around 10,000 of the over 34,500 people reportedly killed. \u201cWe have so far found close to 70 per cent to be children and women,\u201d Sunghay said, highlighting the stringent verification methodology that requires at least three separate sources.
\nHe said the findings showed \u201ca systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law\u201d. At least 4,700 of the verified fatalities were children and 2,461 were women, he added.
\nResidential buildings attacked
\nThe report found that about 80pc of all the verified deaths in Gaza had occurred in Israeli attacks on residential buildings or similar housing. Children aged between five and nine made up the largest group of victims, with the youngest victim a one-day-old boy and the oldest a 97-year-old woman, it said.
\nHowever, Israel claimed its operations in Gaza only targeted combatants and were in line with international law.
\nFriday\u2019s report stressed that the verified deaths largely Gaza\u2019s demographic makeup rather than that of combatants.
\nUN rights chief Volker Turk called on all countries to work to halt the violations and to ensure accountability, including through universal jurisdiction. \u201cIt is essential that there is due reckoning with respect to the allegations of serious violations of international law through credible and impartial judicial bodies,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThe violence must stop immediately, the hostages and those arbitrarily detained must be released, and we must focus on flooding Gaza with humanitarian aid.\u201d
\nArms supply to Israel
\nThe head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that states supplying weapons to Israel as it pursues conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon despite evidence of violations of international law are empowering belligerents elsewhere.
\nHRW\u2019s executive director Tirana Hassan said that countries like the United States, Germany and Britain could influence Israel\u2019s actions and should do so by ending arms sales.
\n\u201cIf there continues to be military support to the Israeli Defense Force and they (Western governments) know that these weapons are being used in the commission of war crimes, then that should be enough for weapons sales and transfers to stop,\u201d she told Reuters in an interview.
\n\u201cAt this stage, the parties that could have some sort of influence and curb the behaviour of the warring parties, when it comes to Israel, it\u2019s the US, the UK, and Germany, and it\u2019s through weapons sales and transfers.\u201d
\nShe said that when states which abused rights saw there were \u2018no consequences\u2019, they felt emboldened to continue.
\nCredibility at stake
\nThe HRW chief said governments supplying them with weapons were undermining their credibility as defenders of international law and human rights as well as the credibility of the international system.
\n\u201cIt sends a message that these rules apply differently to us and our allies as they do to others, and that has really serious consequences,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cThere is really no justification for the killing of children,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GENEVA The United Nations on Friday condemned the staggering number of civilians killed in Israel\u2019s war in Gaza, with women and children comprising nearly 70 per cent of the thousands of deaths it verified. In a fresh report, slammed by Israel, the United Nations human rights office (OHCHR) detailed a raft of violations of international […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-442631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n