Note: Full coverage of this afternoon's meeting of the Security Council will be available Friday, 4 April.
Following the recent discovery of a mass grave in Gaza - in which the bodies of 15 humanitarian workers were interred - the United Nations human-rights Chief warned the Security Council today of a high and increasing risk that atrocity crimes are being committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
"I am appalled by the recent killing of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian aid workers, which raise further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military," said Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Additionally, he observed that the temporary relief granted by the ceasefire "has been shattered". According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Israeli military operations have killed more than 1,200 Palestinians, including at least 320 children, since 1 March. Bombardments of residential buildings, tents, hospitals and schools continue, including places where Palestinians have been ordered to move.
Pointing out that a month has passed since the Israeli military imposed a complete blockade on vital aid and supplies to Gaza, he underscored: "The blockade and siege imposed on Gaza amount to collective punishment and may also amount to the use of starvation as a method of war." He also noted that, as of 1 April, the World Food Programme (WFP) shut its 25 bakeries in Gaza - leaving many without access to bread - and he spotlighted a "return to the breakdown of social order that preceded the ceasefire". Additionally, he said that inflammatory rhetoric by senior Israeli officials regarding seizing, dividing and controlling territory "raises grave concerns about the commission of international crimes".
Further noting that the situation in the West Bank is "extremely alarming", he said that the announcement that residents must not return to their homes for a year "raises serious concerns about long-term mass displacement". While "nothing can justify" the horrific attacks committed on 7 October 2023, he stressed that the same is true for the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. Urging immediate restoration of the ceasefire in Gaza, he warned: "There is a high and increasing risk that atrocity crimes are being committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory."
'Many Appalling Records' Broken in Gaza, with Highest Number of Aid Workers Killed in Any Conflict
"Many appalling records have been broken in this war," observed Younes Al-Khatib, President of the Palestine Red Crescent Society. The war on Gaza, he said, has seen the greatest number of aid workers killed in any conflict. Recently, a mission coordinated by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs uncovered a mass grave, where 15 first responders - including eight Palestine Red Crescent Society paramedics, six civil-defence members and one UN officer - were buried. "They were killed while on mission to save lives," he said.
Noting the Society's documentation of the mission's timeline, as well as dispatch communications and what one team "had witnessed when they went back to the scene", he added that Asad Al-Nasasra, a Society member, had reported that his team was being fired upon and that several colleagues were injured. He is still missing. "We call on the Israeli occupation forces to provide information on his fate," he urged. Also calling for a thorough investigation and the immediate resumption of aid delivery, he added: "We call on the Security Council - and on the whole international community - to spare no effort to return to the ceasefire."
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