Türk: ‘Carnage’ in Gaza must end

Sudan Events – Sumaya Sayed 

The “carnage” in Gaza has left more than 30,000 dead and must end immediately, UN rights chief Volker Türk told the Human Rights Council on Thursday, after almost five months of constant Israeli bombardment and mass displacement in the enclave, prompted by Hamas-led attacks.
“The war in Gaza must end,” Mr. Türk said, insisting that it was “well past time” for peace, accountability and investigations into the “clear” violations of international humanitarian law and possible war crimes by both sides.
“There appear to be no bounds to – no words to capture – the horrors that are unfolding before our eyes in Gaza,” said High Commissioner Türk, as he presented a scheduled report from his Office, OHCHR, on the desperate situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to the Council.
Underscoring the “unprecedented level of killing and maiming” of civilians in the enclave, Mr. Türk noted that at least 17,000 children have now been orphaned or separated from their families.
And after reiterating his condemnation for the “shocking, totally unjustifiable” Hamas-led attacks on 7 and 8 October, along with the “appalling and entirely wrong” taking of hostages, Mr. Türk noted that at least three in four Gazans had been displaced by the war, amid the “systematic demolition of entire neighbourhoods” that had rendered Gaza largely uninhabitable.