Geneva: UN rights chief Volker Turk was “shocked and appalled” by comments by Israel’s finance minister suggesting it might be “justified” to starve the population of Gaza to free hostages, his spokesman said Friday.
The United Nations high commissioner for human rights “condemns these words in the strongest terms, which also incite hatred against innocent civilians,” his spokesman Jeremy Laurence told a press conference.
Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stoked controversy earlier this week, telling a conference: “No one in the world will allow us to starve two million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
“We are bringing in humanitarian aid because we have no choice. We are in a situation that requires international legitimacy to conduct this war,” Smotrich said.
Turk’s spokesman told reporters that “the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime.
“This direct and public statement risks inciting other atrocity crimes. Such statements, especially by public officials, must cease immediately, they must be investigated and if found to amount to a crime, must be prosecuted and punished,” Laurence said.
The unprecedented October 7 Hamas attack that triggered the war in Gaza resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,699 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.
Since the war in Gaza broke out, the humanitarian situation in the besieged Palestinian territory remains dire, with almost all of its 2.4 million population displaced and suffering from food shortages.
UN ‘shocked’ by Israel minister’s Gaza starvation comment
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UN ‘shocked’ by Israel minister’s Gaza starvation comment
- Almost all of Gaza, 2.4 million population is displaced and suffering from food shortages
Armed clashes erupt in Aleppo between Syrian army and Kurdish-led SDF
- One member of Internal Security Forces, another from army were injured
- Defense Ministry accused SDF of targeting homes after they suddenly withdrew from jointly operated checkpoints, fired at government forces
LONDON: The Syrian Ministry of Defense accused the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces of launching a surprise attack on the Internal Security Forces and the Syrian Arab Army in Aleppo on Monday.
The clashes erupted in the densely populated neighborhoods of Ashrafiya and Sheikh Maqsoud, which have a Kurdish majority. The ministry reported that one member of the Internal Security Forces and another from the army were injured, along with several civil defense personnel and civilians.
The ministry denied the claims that the army initiated the conflict. It accused the SDF of targeting homes after they suddenly withdrew from jointly operated checkpoints and fired at government forces with heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade shells, and mortars.
Four civilians, including a woman and a child, were admitted to Al-Razi Hospital in the city, and two Syrian Civil Defense personnel were injured while on duty at the Shihan roundabout, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.
Fighting has spread to areas between the Shihan and Al-Larmon roundabouts, north of Aleppo, prompting dozens of families to flee their homes toward safer locations in Khalidiya and Nile Street, and closing the main Gaziantep-Aleppo highway. The civil defense accused SDF forces of shooting at one of their vehicles, which carried four members.
Azzam Al-Gharib, the governor of Aleppo, urged citizens to avoid approaching the clash sites or roads leading to the city center until further notice.
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