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SvennoJ 6 days ago
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Nearly 70 percent of Gaza war dead women and children: UN

The United Nations Human Rights Office says it has verified 8,119 killings of Palestinians in Gaza that came in the first seven months of Israel’s war on the enclave.

Nearly 70 percent of the verified deaths were women and children, it said, condemning what it called Israel’s systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.

“It is essential that there is due reckoning with respect to the allegations of serious violations of international law through credible and impartial judicial bodies and that, in the meantime, all relevant information and evidence are collected and preserved,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement accompanying the 32-page report.

About 80 percent of the victims were killed in residential buildings, out of which 44 percent were children and 26 percent women, the report said.

Israel’s continuation of these attacks “demonstrates an apparent indifference to the death of civilians and the impact of the means and methods of warfare selected”, a UN statement said.



‘Unprecedented violations’: UN right chief denounces Israel army conduct

The UN Human Rights Office says justice must be served after issuing a report showing the deadly effects of Israel’s military attack on Gaza for more than a year.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk highlighted “atrocity crimes” and demanded Israel immediately follow its obligation under international law to protect Gaza’s civilians.


Palestinians ‘left to their fate in the streets’ of north Gaza: UN

Louise Wateridge, senior emergency officer for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in northern Gaza, spoke to Al Jazeera about the situation for Palestinians under Israeli siege. Here are her main points:

  • For an entire month, all attempts by humanitarian organisations to deliver food to people in the besieged areas of northern Gaza have been blocked by the Israeli authorities.
  • The only UN assistance allowed into north Gaza since the start of the siege were supplies to hospitals during medical evacuation missions.
  • Healthcare conditions in northern Gaza remain critical with the Kamal Adwan Hospital hit twice in the past week, and the delivery of life-saving supplies to the al-Awda Hospital denied.
  • The Israeli authorities are preventing Palestinians from accessing essentials for their survival, including water.
  • Humanitarian workers are not able to do their work in safety.
  • Palestinians in the besieged north have no protection as the bombardment continues.
  • People have been left to their fate in the streets, and many remain trapped under rubble with no possibility to save them.
  • On Thursday, people in parts of northern Gaza were ordered out again by Israel’s army.
  • An initial estimate indicates about 14,000 are displaced Palestinians in that area, which includes three UNRWA facilities and six makeshift shelters.


A Palestinian man carries an injured child rescued from a home hit in an Israeli attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza


‘Statewide policy of uprooting Indigenous people from their homes’

There’s been three more atrocities committed in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. It’s consistent with the findings of the UN Human Rights Office report: Israel repeatedly fails to protect civilians. This is a statewide organised policy of uprooting Indigenous people from their own homes. What we’re seeing so far – in a little over a month in the northern part of the Strip – is nothing short of the ethnic cleansing of an entire population.

The military declares that northern Gaza is empty of civilians, but we all have people who are still in the north. We have eyewitnesses, we have paramedics – civilians who are still in their homes, including children.

New patterns of attacks carried out by the Israeli military take place at nighttime. The skies of the northern part of the Strip are clouded with drones and quadcopters. It makes movement extremely difficult. It impedes the movement of paramedics. It impedes whoever remains of Civil Defence crews.

People have to rely on themselves, volunteering to get to these bomb sites and remove whoever might have survived these attacks or wait until morning breaks and start digging under the rubble to remove people who might have survived.

And even if they survive these attacks, they end up in a hospital that doesn’t have any medical care whatsoever. They end up dying in these hospitals.