UN rights chief says accountability for ‘egregious violations’ critical
Volker Turk, the UN’s human rights chief, has stressed that “all hands on deck” are needed to ensure the Gaza ceasefire translates into a lasting peace.
“Human rights are fundamentally about human dignity. It is also about accountability for the egregious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law that have taken place over the past two years,” Turk said in a video shared on social media.
He added that all Palestinians across Gaza and the occupied West Bank must be included in any future governance decisions, and the Palestinian right to self-determination also must be respected.
UN Human Rights Chief @volker_turk calls on all actors to ensure that human rights are central to recovery and peacebuilding processes, in order for the ceasefire in #Gaza to transform into an enduring peace for the peoples of #Palestine and #Israel.
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) October 17, 2025
Trump’s Gaza plan ‘normalised’ Israeli genocide in Gaza
Diana Buttu, a Palestinian lawyer and political analyst, has likened Trump’s Gaza plan to holding “a knife to [the] throat” of Palestinians. “That’s what this agreement is entirely about,” Buttu said during the IMEU webinar.
She explained that this is because the agreement gives all of the guarantees to Israel, “a country that has never respected any international agreement” or UN resolution, and has been accused of committing genocide against Palestinians.
“But beyond that … [the deal] giving Israel the veto in terms of what gets into Gaza, and we’re already seeing that Israel has already decided what is going into Gaza and what is not going into Gaza,” said Buttu, who noted that Israel is blocking portable housing and construction materials from reaching the Strip.
She added that the agreement ultimately has “normalised genocide”.
Gaza aid worker shares stories of torture, abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons
Moureen Kaki, a Palestinian American aid worker and head of mission for medical group Glia International in Gaza, says she saw about 35 Palestinian prisoners who were released by Israel as part of the ceasefire deal – and each one reported similar stories of abuse and torture in Israeli jails.
Three people she met had gunshot wounds in the same place on their leg, Kaki said during the IMEU webinar on the Gaza ceasefire deal. “They were being abused and beaten by Israeli soldiers as early as two hours before, while they were on the bus to Gaza,” Kaki said.
“They had all talked about how, since the ceasefire was announced … before their release, that they were given only toilet water to drink and they were not given any food. They had all talked about ‘soft torture’, being made to kneel or sit in very uncomfortable positions for hours at a time, for days on end,” she continued.
“Most of them described a typical meal – when they were allowed food – as being three spoons of something – three spoons of lentils, three spoons of chickpeas, three spoons of beans.”
As well as severe malnutrition, the released Palestinians also suffered from scabies, she said, “and that’s not even getting into the psychological torture that they endured”.
