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The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has told the BBC that Gaza has become “hell on earth”, as Israel’s military assault there continues. Mirjana Spoljaric’s comments come on the same day the UN human rights office warned that Israel’s tactics were threatening the viability of Palestinians continuing to live in Gaza at all.
Israeli bombardment has killed 1,542 people since it renewed the war on 18 March, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has also issued evacuation orders that have forced nearly 400,000 people to move. Israel has also imposed a complete blockade on the entry of food, medical supplies and all other goods since 2 March.
Israel insists it always follows international law in Gaza, and has also argued that the particular nature of this conflict, with Hamas fighters hidden among the civilian population, mean collateral damage can sometimes happen.
“No state, no party to a conflict… can be exempt from the obligation not to commit war crimes, not to commit genocide, not to commit ethnic cleansing,” Ms Spoljaric said. “These rules apply. They are universal.”
Civilians were bearing the brunt of a relentless pursuit of military objectives, she added, being displaced multiple times, and their homes reduced to rubble.
Of 36 recent airstrikes verified by the UN human rights office, all those killed were women and children.
Israel has strenuously denied accusations it is committing genocide or genocidal acts in Gaza.
On Friday the UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the “cumulative impact” of the IDF’s conduct meant “the office is seriously concerned that Israel appears to be inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence as a group in Gaza”.
The ICRC believes that sticking with the rules of war can help, eventually, to build a more sustainable peace. Once the fighting stops, the thinking goes, both soldiers and civilians will remember whether those on the other side obeyed international law, or whether they committed atrocities.
But Gaza, Ms Spoljaric believes “will haunt us. It will haunt us for a long time because you cannot undo the suffering… that will last for generations”.
More than 50,912 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
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