The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for an international inquiry with “independent, effective and transparent investigations” in an otherwise climate of “prevailing impunity”. Amnesty also attacks Israel: “It makes a mockery of international law.”
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was “horrified” from the destruction of the Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals in Gaza and from the news of “mass graves” found in the sites of Israeli raids: for this reason the UN agency has asked for an international investigation to be conducted with “independent, effective and transparent investigations” in an otherwise climate of “prevalence of impunity”. The investigation, therefore, “should include international investigators”, said High Commissioner Volker Türk, relaunching the request for an immediate ceasefire with the release of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said on Saturday that the bodies of 50 Palestinians had been recovered from a mass grave at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, following Israeli raids in the area. Subsequent updates released by the same agency brought the number of bodies recovered to 340, two weeks after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area which for their part, as usual, rejected all the accusations saying they extraneous to the facts. “During the operation in the area of the Nasser hospital, in an attempt to locate hostages and missing persons, bodies buried by Palestinians were examined with caution and only in places where intelligence information reported the possible presence of hostages”, explained the the army of the Jewish state ensuring that it “preserved the dignity of the deceased”.
UNICEF: “87% of schools damaged or destroyed in Gaza”
Meanwhile, another UN agency, UNICEF, also certifies that Israel’s military actions were not at all aimed solely at the search and release of hostages: “Over 87% of all school buildings in the Gaza Strip” , in fact, “were damaged or destroyed, according to estimates by the Education Cluster, of which UNICEF is part. All schools were closed for 625 thousand students for six months. All universities in Gaza were destroyed”, he underlined Unicef Italy Spokesperson Andrea Iacomini.
More than 300 bodies discovered in mass graves in hospitals in Gaza: “Buried alive or executed”
Amnesty: “Israel flouts international law”
Amnesty International’s comment was also very harsh, according to which “Israel flouted international law in Gaza, where evidence of war crimes continues to come in. After the horrendous attacks by Hamas and other armed groups on October 7, Israeli authorities launched relentless air strikes against civilian areas, often wiping out entire families, causing the forced displacement of 1.9 million Palestinians and limiting, despite advancing of the famine in the Gaza Strip, access to desperately needed humanitarian aid.”
“The international community’s shocking lack of action in protecting thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip, including a horrifyingly high percentage of minors, from killing has made it clear that the very institutions created to protect civilians and enforce human rights they no longer serve their purpose. In 2023 we had confirmation that many powerful States are abandoning the constitutive values of humanity and universality at the heart of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, commented Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
