The United Nations human rights chief condemned Israel on Monday for its “mass killing” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and “hindering of sufficient life-saving aid”, saying the country had a case to answer before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
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Volker Turk, who heads the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), stopped short of describing the Gaza war as an unfolding genocide, as hundreds of UN staff had urged him to do.
But in his opening address to the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Turk expressed horror at what he called “the open use of genocidal rhetoric” and “disgraceful dehumanisation” of Palestinians by senior Israeli officials.
“Israel’s mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza; its infliction of indescribable suffering and wholesale destruction; its hindering of sufficient life-saving aid and the ensuing starvation of civilians; its killing of journalists; and its commission of war crime upon war crime, are shocking the conscience of the world,” Turk said.
“Israel has a case to answer before the International Court of Justice and the evidence continues to mount,” Turk said, referring to the ICJ’s ruling in January that Israel had a legal obligation to prevent acts of genocide.
Israel’s delegation to the UN in Geneva said it would respond to a request for comment shortly.