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GENEVA. – Israeli retaliatory air strikes against the Hamas militant group struck residential buildings and schools across the Gaza Strip, UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk said yesterday, adding that “sieges” were illegal under international law.
Turk also condemned “horrifying mass killings by members of Palestinian armed groups” and said the militants’ abduction of hostages was also forbidden under international law.
The Israeli military said on Monday it had called up an unprecedented 300 000 reservists and was imposing a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, in a sign it may be planning a ground assault in response to the devastating weekend attacks by Hamas gunmen.
Israel’s air attacks – the worst in the 75-year history of its conflict with the Palestinians – also hit “premises of the UN relief and works agency, UNRWA (UN Palestinian refugee agency),” a UN rights office statement said, adding that civilians were among the dead and injured.
Israel vowed to take “mighty revenge” after the Hamas attack left its streets strewn with bodies. Israeli media said 900 people were killed in the attacks and most were civilians, while Gaza’s health ministry said the retaliatory air strikes had killed at least 830 people and wounded 4 250.
The strikes intensified yesterday night, shaking the ground and sending more columns of smoke and flames into the sky, with entire districts flattened.
The United Nations said more than 180 000 Gazans had been made homeless, many huddling on streets or in schools.
Three Gaza journalists were killed while reporting outside a building, bringing the number of journalists killed to six.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Israeli strikes had since Saturday destroyed more than 22,600 residential units and 10 health facilities and damaged 48 schools.
Israel’s defence forces said on social media platform X that aircraft had hit military targets, including weapons storage and manufacturing sites.
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva criticised Turk’s statement.
“He cannot bring himself to condemn those who carried out the (Hamas) attacks as terrorists,” it said.
Turk said Israel’s “imposition of sieges that endanger the lives of civilians by depriving them of goods essential for their survival is prohibited under international humanitarian law”.
“This risks seriously compounding the already dire human rights and humanitarian situation in Gaza, including the capacity of medical facilities to operate, especially in light of increasing numbers of injured,” he said, adding that a siege may amount to “collective punishment”.
Such acts may amount to a war crime, UN Human Rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani later clarified. The UN rights office’s findings were based on a review of available material, including from its own monitors on the ground, she said.
Separately, a UN-appointed Commission of Inquiry said in a statement there was already “clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed” by all sides to the conflict. It said it was collecting evidence to ensure future legal accountability.
Some 187 500 people have fled their homes in Gaza, a UN humanitarian office offices spokesperson said at the same briefing, warning of shortages of water and electricity.
“UNICEF is extremely alarmed about measures to cut electricity, to cut food, to cut water, to cut fuel from entering Gaza. This will add another layer of suffering to the existing catastrophe faced by families in Gaza,” said UN children’s agency spokesperson James Elder. He added that “hundreds” of Israeli and Palestinian children had been killed since the weekend, without giving details. – Reuters
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