UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva on Friday that “we’ve raised concerns about atrocity crimes having been committed and the risk of further atrocity crimes, where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food and medicine and where they are being attacked, where again… they have a choice between being shot or being fed”.
Deadly lottery
“This is unacceptable and it’s continuing,” she deplored.
Ms. Shamdasani said that her office is still looking into the incident in which at least 15 Palestinians including women and children were reportedly killed by a strike in front of a clinic in Deir al-Balah run by US-based aid group Project Hope, a partner organization of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
In a statement on Thursday UNICEF chief Catherine Russell said that the killing of families trying to access life-saving aid is “unconscionable”.
The Israeli military reportedly said that it was targeting a Hamas member involved in the terror attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023.
Asked about the rationale of putting civilians, including children, in mortal danger when targeting one specific person, Ms. Shamdasani said that over the course of the conflict in Gaza OHCHR has had serious concerns about respect for essential international humanitarian law principles, including that of distinction and proportionality.
“We have seen that of the overall death toll in Gaza; a large proportion are women and children. And again, that raises serious questions about whether these principles are being respected,” she said.
Hungry people in Gaza run the risk being shot when picking up food aid.
Hundreds killed queuing for food
Killings of Gazans at or around aid distribution sites and near humanitarian convoys have become a regular occurrence in a context of restrictions on the entry of food, fuel and relief items into the Strip and particularly since the establishment of food distribution sites bypassing the UN operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Since late May, this militarised aid distribution model, backed by Israel and the United States, has sought to sideline the UN and its experienced humanitarian partners.
OHCHR’s Ms. Shamdasani said that from 27 May, when the GHF started operations in Gaza, until 7 July, OHCHR recorded 798 killings “including 615 in the vicinity of the GHF sites and 183 presumably on the routes of aid convoys”.
Gunshot injuries
The deaths of almost 800 people trying to access aid were “mostly due to… gunshot injuries”, Ms. Shamdasani said.
Joining her in condemning the killings, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said that he is “slowly lacking words to describe the scenario”.
“People being shot at distribution sites… scores of women and children and men and boys and girls being killed while either getting food or in what’s supposedly safe shelters or on the road to health clinics or inside health clinics – this is far beyond unacceptable.”
Fuel crisis
Asked to comment on a 75,000-litre fuel delivery into Gaza on Wednesday, the first such provision in over 130 days, Mr. Lindmeier said that “as good as it is that these this amount of fuel came finally in… we should not be relying on special news of special deliveries,” be it on fuel, food or other relief items.
“There should be a reoccurring delivery into Gaza to keep the lifelines open, to supply the ambulances, the hospitals, the water desalination plants, the bakeries… whatever is necessary to keep a little bit of lifeline open there, to run the incubators,” he said.
The WHO spokesperson pointed out that 94 per cent of the hospitals in Gaza are now damaged or destroyed, while displacement continues and civilians are being pushed into ever smaller spaces.
Mr. Lindmeier also expressed his hope for a positive outcome of the ongoing ceasefire talks.
“Peace is the best medicine and opening the doors remains the only viable option,” he concluded.
