LOC15:35
12:35 GMT
GENEVA, April 23 (KUNA) -- UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk expressed outrage on Tuesday over the destruction of the An Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Shifa Medical Complex, as well as the reported discovery of mass graves in and around these locations.
According to a statement released in Geneva, Turk called for "independent, effective, and transparent investigations" into the deaths, stating, "Given the prevailing climate of impunity, this should include international investigators."
He emphasized that "hospitals are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law, and the intentional killing of civilian detainees and others who are hors de combat is a war crime."
Turk reported that the UN Human Rights Office has received reports of unlawful killings of Palestinians in apparent extrajudicial executions, the use of unarmed Palestinians as 'human shields' by Israeli Security Forces (ISF), and the detention and ill-treatment of dozens of others.
Turk also condemned the Israeli strikes on Rafah that killed mostly children and women, warning against a full-scale incursion into an area where 1.2 million civilians have been forcibly cornered.
The UN Human Rights Chief also condemned the ongoing grave human rights violations in the occupied West Bank, stating that despite international condemnation, settler violence has continued with the support, protection, and participation of the Israeli Security Forces (ISF).
He added that the ISF had inflicted unprecedented and apparently wanton destruction on Nur Shams refugee camp and Tulkarem city and its infrastructure during a 50-hour-long operation starting on April 18. The ISF deployed ground troop bulldozers and drones and sealed the camp. Fourteen Palestinians were killed three of them children.
Turk emphasized that human rights violations and the unspeakable suffering caused by the fighting must end once and for all, stating that those responsible for those atrocities will be held accountable.
"The latest images of a premature child taken from the womb of her dying mother, of the adjacent two houses where 15 children and five women were killed - this is beyond warfare," he added.
"Every 10 minutes a child is killed or wounded. They are protected under the laws of war and yet they are the ones who are disproportionately paying the ultimate price in this war," said Turk.
The UN Rights Chief stated that according to the authorities in Gaza, as of April 22, 34,151 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, 14,685 were children, and 9,670 were women. Another 77,084 have been injured, and over 7,000 others are assumed to be under the rubble.
He reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of those held in arbitrary detention, and the unfettered flow of humanitarian aid. (end)
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