GENEVA
More than 100,000 Palestinians were left without a home to return to following the latest Israeli military operation in Gaza, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Flavia Pansieri said.
Speaking at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, Pansieri introduced a report on the Israeli onslaught in the Gaza Strip this past summer, noting that, by the end of the operation, "more than a quarter of Gaza’s entire population, 497,000 people, had been internally displaced."
"This summer’s deadly escalation of hostilities in Gaza was only the most recent one in a series of repeated escalations over the past six years," Pansieri said. "But this time the level of death and destruction was even more devastating than before."
Noting that there were a total of 2,158 Palestinian fatalities, Pansieri said 1,479 of them were civilians and 506 of them were children. Pansieri added that 66 Israeli soldiers, at least five Israeli civilians were also killed during the hostilities.
"These numbers speak for themselves. Gazans found themselves in an intolerable situation, trapped in the densely populated strip under blockade," Pansieri said.
"The report notes serious concerns of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including some that may amount to war crimes," Pansieri said.
With regard to Israeli attacks on UNRWA schools sheltering internally displaced people, Pansieri said "there are also concerns that the inviolability of UN premises has not been respected in violation of applicable international law protecting UN facilities."
Also speaking before the council, Mehmet Ferden Carikci, the permanent representative of Turkey to the United Nations office in Geneva added: "Persistent violations of international law lie at the heart of the abysmal human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories."
"Turkey continues with providing humanitarian assistance to Gaza, including food, medicine and fuel. We are transferring the wounded people from Gaza to Turkey for treatment. We are working on new assistance projects such as supplying electricity to Gaza and building field hospitals," Carikci added.
Palestinian and Israeli negotiators signed a cease-fire agreement in Cairo on August 26 following a 51-day military onslaught on the Gaza Strip by Israel.
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