International
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calls for 'immediate humanitarian ceasefire' in Gaza
October 24, 2023 | 11:53 AM
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza Strip as its residents face ferocious and indiscriminate Israeli bombardments since October 7."The first step must be an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, saving the lives of civilians through the delivery of prompt and effective humanitarian aid," rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.Over 5,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza in the Israeli airstrikes, 2,000 of them children. Over 1,400, including 800 children, are reportedly trapped under rubble in Gaza. Tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed. Scores of people were killed in Israeli bombing raids on the south of the besieged enclave in the early hours of Tuesday morning."This violence will never end unless leaders stand up and take the brave and humane choices that are required by fundamental humanity," Turk said."Unless something changes, coming days will see more civilians on the brink of death from continuing bombardment. Humanity must come first," he added.The humanitarian situation in Gaza, already strangled by 16 years of blockade, is now verging on catastrophe due to lack of water, power, sanitation, essential medicine, food, and other basic necessities, Turk said. Reports of overcrowding and spread of diseases are deeply worrying, even more so when hospitals are damaged and destroyed, there is a worsening shortage of medicines, and movement is heavily restricted."Action by Israel to cut off civilians from access to essential goods and services as a form of collective punishment, also violates international law," Turk stressed."If more aid for Gazans, including fuel, medicine, food and water, does not arrive in days or even hours, many more people in Gaza will die, of hunger, thirst and lack of medical care," he said. "I am deeply worried about the struggles for survival of Palestinians in Gaza, including many of my own and other UN staff," he added.
October 24, 2023 | 11:53 AM