“Darkest moment” of Gaza war unfolding, says UN

The UN rights chief said on October 25th that the “darkest moment of the war in Gaza was currently unfolding in the strip’s north, according to the Arab News via AFP.
Volker Türk said that already “more than 150,000 people are reportedly dead, wounded or missing in Gaza,” since the war began. “Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day,” he said. “My gravest fear is, given the intensity, breadth, scale and blatant nature of the Israeli operation currently underway in North Gaza, that number will rise dramatically.”
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Türk warned that Israel’s policies in Gaza’s north “risk emptying the area of all Palestinians.” “We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity.”
He called for world leaders to fulfil their obligations under the Geneva Conventions to ensure that international humanitarian law is respected, and said that “today the darkest moment of the Gaza conflict is unfolding in the north of the Strip, where the Israeli military is effectively subjecting an entire population to bombing, siege and risk of starvation.”
He added that there was “extremely limited access to this part of Gaza, next to no aid has reached the area in weeks, with unlawful restrictions remaining.” Earlier in the week, the World Health Organisation said they were suspending their program of polio vaccinations in the north of the strip, due to the “escalating violence and intense bombardments,” according to The Guardian.
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Türk added that “the Israeli military is striking hospitals, and staff and patients have been killed and injured or forced to evacuate simultaneously.” On October 25th, Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, in an operation that killed children.
AFP, The Guardian