The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has declared on Friday that Israel is committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip, Palestine.
OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva that the collective punishment imposed by Israel on the population of the Gaza Strip through the blockade of food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel supplies, as well as the daily bombardment of densely populated areas, constitutes a war crime.
Noting that there is currently no safe zone in Gaza, Shamdasani added that the suffering in Gaza must end and that civilians have been greatly affected by these attacks.
She stressed that efforts must be made to immediately de-escalate the situation in Gaza.
On October 7, the Hamas movement launched rocket attacks on Israeli positions and infiltrated the border areas from the Gaza Strip. In response, Tel Aviv launched massive retaliatory strikes on Gaza, later declaring a state of war and implementing a total blockade of the Strip, cutting off water, food, electricity, medicine and fuel.
After two weeks of unprecedented daily bombardment by the IDF and Israel's blockade of basic supplies, the Gaza Strip, home to 2.4 million people, did not begin to receive shipments of humanitarian aid through the Rafah checkpoint on the border with Egypt until October 21.
According to the United Nations, Gaza needs about 100 aid trucks a day to meet the needs of its population, nearly half of whom have been displaced by Israeli bombardment.