Cry of anguish from the UN over the humanitarian “hell” in Gaza

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk began today five-day visit to the Middle East to discuss with government officials and civil society about the human rights violations taking place as Israel’s assault on Gaza escalates.

“He was a whole month of slaughter, of incessant pain, bloodshed, destruction, rage and despair,” Turk said in his statement. “Human rights violations are at the root of this escalation and human rights play a central role in finding a way out of this vortex of suffering”.

Turk is in Cairo today and will visit tomorrow, Wednesday Rafawhich is on the border with Gaza, before traveling to Amman the day after tomorrow, Thursday, his office announced.

It is recalled that, during his appeal for an urgent ceasefireUN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Monday that Gaza is becoming “cemetery for children”.

“The Israeli Defense Forces’ ground operations and continued shelling affecting civilians, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques, churches and UN facilities, including shelters. No one is safe,” Guterres told reporters.

“At the same time, Hamas and other militants are using civilians as human shields and continue to fire rockets indiscriminately at Israel,” he said.

International organizations have stated that hospitals cannot deal with the wounded and food and clean water are running out with aid deliveries not being close enough. “We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. 30 days have passed. That’s enough. This must stop now,” said a statement from the heads of several bodies of the United States.

“No” to a general ceasefire from Netanyahu

At the same time, Benjamin Netanyahu rejects the idea of ​​declaring a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip if the hostages held by the Palestinian Islamist movement are not first released.

“There will be no ceasefire, no general ceasefire in Gaza, without the release of the hostages.”he said.

“As far as short breaks – an hour here, an hour there – we’re already doing them”added Mr. Israeli Prime Minister.

On the contrary, he stated that his country will assume “overall responsibility for security” in the Gaza Strip indefinitely after the war ends.

Asked during an interview with the American television network ABC News who will take over the governance of the Palestinian enclave after the war, the Israeli prime minister replied: “those who don’t want to continue on the path of Hamas”.

The cordon is tightening in Gaza

Having surrounded the densely populated Gaza City in the north of the enclave, home to the Islamist group Hamas, the Israeli military said it had captured a militant compound and was about to attack fighters hiding in underground tunnels.

At least 23 Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes early Tuesday in the southern Gaza towns of Khan Younis and Rafah, health officials said.

Israel’s military said on Tuesday it had taken control of a Hamas military stronghold in the northern Gaza Strip, where it said forces found anti-tank missiles and launchers, weapons and various intelligence materials.

Israeli warplanes hit several Hamas fighters holed up in a building near al-Quds Hospital and planning to launch an attack on Israeli forces, it said.

Since October 7, according to the Israeli authorities, they have been killed over 1,400 people on the Israeli sidemostly civilians, especially on the day of the unprecedented attack on areas of Israeli territory launched by the Palestinian Islamist movement, the deadliest since the State of Israel’s 1948 attack. Hamas also took pover 240 hostages and transported them to Gaza.

According to the latest casualty count released by the Hamas Health Ministry on Monday, at least 10,022 people, also mostly civilians, including more than 4,000 children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip to the devastating bombardments launched by the Israeli military from the air, sea and land since then.