Significant part of Gaza population being wiped off; UN Rapporteur
A significant part of Gaza population is being “wiped off,” the UN rapporteur for Palestinian territories said Thursday, as the blockaded city continues to face intense Israeli strikes and shelling.
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese emphasised that a significant portion of the besieged population in the Gaza Strip are being wiped off.
“What’s happening is that a significant part of the Palestinian population in Gaza is being wiped off. Not differently from what has happened before… but with increased ferocity,” Albanese said in remarks to the press.
Regarding the Israeli occupation’s decision to cut off water, electricity, food, and other essential supplies to Gaza, the UN Special Rapporteur confirmed that starving the besieged population in Gaza and depriving them of necessities constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity.
Albanese described the situation in Gaza as catastrophic and called for an immediate ceasefire.
Albanese stressed that civilian Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza also must be released and that their continued captivity was “absolutely unjustified.”
“And I also want to say that by carpet bombing the Gaza Strip, Israel is also endangering its own civilian population which is held captive by Hamas in Gaza,” she said.
She urged the occupying authorities to stop the bombing of civilians and emphasized the immediate need to open humanitarian corridors for the wounded and those in critical condition in Gaza.
On demands for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza, she said that there was “no such discussion” among countries on establishing such a route.
“No one is … actively negotiating it, as far as I know.
“Egypt so far has not agreed …
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The UN official said that providing assistance is a priority, pointing out that the West bears significant responsibility due to its unconditional support for the Israeli entity.
Albanese highlighted the overwhelmed state of hospitals in Gaza still functioning under the Israeli bombardment, saying that they had reached maximum capacity.
“There are patients sharing the same bed, patients laying on the ground and there are no medicines,” she said.
At the moment, there is “no possibility of anything entering Gaza,” according to Albanese, who said the enclave is “under total siege.”
Describing the situation as catastrophic, she said there were people on the ground in the city, running with dead or wounded in their arms, trying to find shelter of which there is none in the city.
Throughout the fighting, now in its fifth day, Albanese said, “every rule of international humanitarian law had been broken.”
On the other hand, the United Nations launched an urgent appeal on Thursday to raise $294 million in donations to assist the population in both the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
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