UN Human Rights Office: Israel violates international humanitarian law
Published: Friday, Jan 12th 2024, 13:20
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According to the UN Human Rights Office, Israel is violating the basic principles of international humanitarian law in its military operations in the Gaza Strip. These include precautionary measures to protect the civilian population.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has already emphasized that violations of international humanitarian law increase the risk of being held accountable for war crimes, a spokeswoman for the office said on Friday in Geneva.
Israel's calls to the civilian population to leave certain districts before planned military operations were not enough. The military is nevertheless responsible for sparing civilians.
The UN Human Rights Office also criticizes the fact that hundreds of Palestinians have reportedly been taken prisoner and are being held in unknown locations. People who have been released have reported abuse and torture by the Israeli military. This must stop and those responsible for ill-treatment and torture must be held accountable.
The office also criticized the continued attacks by armed Palestinian groups on Israel. It condemned the attack by Palestinian terrorists on Israel on October 7, who killed 1,200 people there and deported around 250 to the Gaza Strip. 136 are still in the hands of the perpetrators there.
The UN Human Rights Office does not refer to terrorists, but to "armed Palestinian groups". The reason: in the context of armed conflicts, international humanitarian law does not define the term terrorism.
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