The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for OHCHR : Rafah/West Bank situation
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4:10
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MP4
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137.7 MB
Teleprompter
Gaza in the past few days that have killed mostly Children.
And the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights today decried a series of Israeli strikes
on Gaza in the past few days that have killed mostly Children and women.
He repeats his warning against a full scale incursion on an
area where 1.2 million civilians have
already been forcibly cornered beyond warfare
on the 19th of
April.
Such an operation would lead to further breaches
of international humanitarian law and international human rights law
and risks even more deaths, injuries and displacement on a large scale,
even further atrocity crimes for which
those responsible must be held accountable.
10 minutes
a child is killed or wounded,
the latest images of a premature child who was
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 for independent, effective,
transparent investigations into the deaths.
This is something that struck me as a woman, as a mother,
the
the woman, the child,
the premature child who was delivered from the dying mother's womb.
It really struck me, really affected me and then II I looked at what UFP had said.
An estimated 180 women are giving birth every day in Gaza in
inhumane, unimaginable conditions.
Now this woman was dying when the premature baby was taken out.
Um, there are women who are 100 and 80 women giving birth every day,
many probably through Caesarean sections without anaesthesia
in inhumane, deplorable conditions,
not knowing whether their child will survive,
not knowing whether they will survive.
And, let's be clear, the intentional killing of civilians.
Every 10 minutes a child is killed or wounded.
I let you calculate how many Children must have
been killed or wounded since this briefing began.
Today
they are protected under the laws of war,
and yet they are the ones who are
disproportionately paying the ultimate price in the war.
Moving on to the West Bank. We are horrified also by the destruction of
a medical complex, an Al
Shifa medical complex and the reports of the
discovery of mass graves in and around facilities.
And we call for independent, effective,
transparent investigations into the deaths.
just, um,
given the prevailing climate of impunity,
this should include international investigators.
Hospitals are entitled to very special
protection under international humanitarian law.
And let's be clear, the intentional killing of civilians,
detainees and others who are of the combat is a war crime.
There
are
reports that
the High Commissioner has said that the unspeakable suffering brought
by the fighting alongside the resulting misery and destruction,
starvation and disease and the risk of wider conflict must end once and for all.
We reiterate our call for an immediate ceasefire,
the release of hostages and those held in arbitrary detention
and the unfettered flow of humanitarian aid.
It is
an important
one.
But
grave human rights violations are continuing unabated in the occupied West Bank.
Despite international condemnation of massive settler attacks from
the 12th to the 14th of April,
facilitated by Israeli security forces, settler
has continued with the support,
protection and participation of Israeli security forces.
We have received reports that several
Palestinians were unlawfully killed and that
used unarmed Palestinians to shield their forces from
attack and killed others in apparent extrajudicial executions.
Dozens were reportedly detained and ill treated
and
inflicted unprecedented and apparently wanton destruction
on the camp and its infrastructure.