GENEVA (18 May 2021) \u2013 UN human rights experts* called on the international community to demand an immediate end to the violence in Gaza and Israel, and to act decisively to address the underlying source of the conflict: the denial of collective and individual rights of the Palestinian people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis most recent violence has a depressingly familiar pattern to it,\u201d said the experts. \u201cIsrael and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza exchange missiles and rockets following dispossession and the denial of rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, with Israel\u2019s far greater firepower inflicting far higher death tolls and injuries and a much larger scale of property destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of Monday, at least 211 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 59 children, have been killed, along with 10 Israelis, including two children. At least 10 Palestinians in the West Bank protesting the violence in Gaza have also been killed by Israeli security forces. Almost 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their home, sheltering in UN compounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe firing by Israel of missiles and shells into heavily populated areas of Gaza \u2013 particularly with the rising civilian toll and property destruction \u2013 constitute indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks against civilians and civilian property. These attacks likely violate the laws of war and constitute a war crime,\u201d the experts said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimilarly, the firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups deliberately or recklessly into Israeli urban areas likely violate international law and may well amount to a war crime. Armed groups in Gaza should also be held to account in their failure to take adequate precautions to protect the civilian population and civilian objects under their control against the effects of attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth sides must strictly adhere to their responsibilities under international law, especially that of proportionality and necessity. There is no justification, including counter-terrorism or self-defence, to justify a wholesale abdication for the obligations of Parties to strictly obey international humanitarian law. The actions of both Israel and the Palestinian armed groups should be a matter for the International Criminal Court to investigate.\u201d<\/p>\n
In particular, Israel\u2019s duties as the occupying power require it to allow humanitarian aid \u2013 including food, fuel and medical supplies \u2013 to enter unhindered into Gaza, the experts said. New reports indicate that fuel supplies in Gaza are almost completely depleted.<\/p>\n
The experts condemned the Israeli attack on a civilian apartment building which housed the offices of several international news agencies. \u201cViolence or threatened violence against journalists, particularly those reporting in a conflict zone, breaches the freedom of expression and the right of the media to report unhindered,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Gaza has been under a comprehensive 14-year-old blockade by Israel. Recent Secretaries General of the United Nations have called this a form of collective punishment, a prohibited act under the Fourth Geneva Convention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world should be deeply concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza,\u201d said the human rights experts. \u201cMost alarmingly, its health care system is flat on its back. It has been starved of equipment, medicines and trained staff. It is buckling under the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. And now, it is trying to treat the more than 2,000 Palestinians injured during this latest violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
The experts noted with deep regret that the international community has not acted with more unity and more success to bring an immediate end to the violence. In particular, the inability of the UN Security Council to even issue a statement after three meetings is an abdication of duty. They observed that the United States has failed to employ its special relationship with Israel, with whom it enjoys a close military and diplomatic alliance, to enforce an immediate ceasefire.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe underlying reality is that there is an occupying power, with one of the best equipped militaries in the world, ruling over an occupied people who have the right to be freed from an unwanted and protracted alien regime,\u201d they said. \u201cThis struggle is deeply unequal. The 54-year-old Israeli occupation \u2013 already the longest occupation in the modern world \u2013 is becoming even more entrenched and even more abusive of fundamental human rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the last missile of this current violence has been fired, and after the tears from the last funeral have been shed, accountability must rise to the top of the agenda of the United Nations. The international community must ensure that Israel, the occupying power, complies fully with the more than 30 UN Security Council resolutions and the hundreds of General Assembly resolutions of which it is in breach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe enemies of accountability are impunity and exceptionalism,\u201d the experts said. \u201cIt is folly to expect that the justice, peace, equality and security which both Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews have a right to enjoy can be achieved without imposing a meaningful cost on Israel, the occupying power, to fully end its illegal occupation.<\/p>\n
\u201cA brand new diplomatic playbook is needed, which leaves behind realpolitik. A rights-based approach must guide the diplomacy of the international community to secure a just and durable solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n
*The experts: Mr. Michael Lynk,<\/i><\/b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967.<\/i><\/a>\u00a0Mr. Cl\u00e9ment Voule<\/b>,\u00a0<\/i>Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association<\/i><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>Mr. Morris Tidball-Binz<\/i><\/b>,\u00a0<\/i>Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions<\/i><\/a>.\u00a0Fionnuala N\u00ed Aol\u00e1in<\/i><\/b>,\u00a0<\/em>Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism<\/i><\/a>.\u00a0<\/i>Ms. Koumbou Boly Barry<\/i><\/b>,\u00a0Special Rapporteur on the right to education<\/i>;<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i>The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the\u00a0<\/i>Special Procedures<\/i><\/a>\u00a0of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council\u2019s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.<\/i><\/p>\n UN Human Rights, Country Page:\u00a0<\/i>Occupied Palestinian Territory<\/i><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/i>Israel<\/i><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n For more information and\u00a0media requests<\/b>, please contact Abigail Eshel at\u00a0aeshel@ohchr.org<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GENEVA (18 May 2021) \u2013 UN human rights experts* called on the international community to demand an immediate end to the violence in Gaza and Israel, and to act decisively to address the underlying source of the conflict: the denial of collective and individual rights of the Palestinian people. \u201cThis most recent violence has a […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[5465,5025,2025],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,1829,2033,2005,1741,2185,2349,2117,6245],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[],"class_list":["post-251932","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-extrajudicial-summary-arbitrary-executions","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-the-right-to-peaceful-assembly-and-association","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-opt","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-casualties","document-subject-children","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-legal-issues","document-subject-living-conditions","document-subject-terrorism","document-subject-violence","entity-united-nations-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/251932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/251932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=251932"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=251932"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=251932"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=251932"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=251932"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=251932"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=251932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}