A spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office condemned the ongoing violence near humanitarian aid sites in Gaza, calling the deadly attacks “unconscionable.”
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00:00Deadly attacks on distraught civilians trying to access the paltry amounts of food aid in
00:06Gaza are unconscionable.
00:10For a third day running, people were killed around an aid distribution site run by the
00:16Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
00:20This morning, we received information that dozens more people were killed and injured.
00:27There must be a prompt and impartial investigation into each of these attacks and those responsible
00:35held to account.
00:38Attacks directed against civilians constitute a grave breach of international law and a war
00:48crime.
00:49Palestinians have been presented the grimmest of choices, die from starvation or risk
00:56being killed while trying to access the meagre food that is being made available through
01:02Israel's militarised humanitarian assistance mechanism.
01:08This militarised system endangers lives and violates international standards on aid distribution,
01:17as the United Nations has repeatedly warned.
01:21The willful impediment of access to food and other life-sustaining relief supplies for
01:26civilians may constitute a war crime.
01:31The threat of starvation, together with 20 months of killing of civilians and destruction
01:39on a massive scale, repeated force displacements, intolerable dehumanising rhetoric and threats
01:48by Israel's leadership to empty the strip of its population, also constitute elements of the
01:57most serious crimes under international law.
02:02In 2024, the International Court of Justice found that there was a real and imminent risk of irreparable
02:09prejudice to the rights of Palestinians in Gaza under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
02:17of the Crime of Genocide.
02:20The Court issued binding orders on Israel to take all necessary and effective measures to ensure,
02:27without delay, in full cooperation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale,
02:36by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance, including food,
02:45water, electricity, fuel, shelter, clothing, hygiene and sanitation requirements, as well as medical supplies,
02:56and medical care to Palestinians throughout Gaza.
03:02There is no justification for failing to comply with these obligations.