As heavy Israeli bombardments continued to hit the Palestinian enclave on Thursday, dozens of the United Nations’ rights experts said Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip “amounts to collective punishment”.
The statement comes after Israel imposed a “total siege” to stop food and fuel from reaching the enclave of 2.3 million people, many poor and dependent on aid in response to a surprise Hamas offensive on Saturday that left 1,200 Israelis dead, according to officials.
In retaliatory air and artillery strikes, Israeli forces have flattened entire neighbourhoods, hospitals and schools in Gaza, killing 1,200 Palestinians since Saturday, and displacing more than 338,000. Yesterday, electricity went out after the only power station stopped working.
While condemning the “horrific crimes committed by Hamas”, the group said that Israel had resorted to “indiscriminate military attacks against the already exhausted Palestinian people of Gaza”.
“They have lived under unlawful blockade for 16 years, and already gone through five major brutal wars, which remain unaccounted for,” the group, which includes several UN special rapporteurs, said in a statement.
“This amounts to collective punishment. There is no justification for violence that indiscriminately targets innocent civilians, whether by Hamas or Israeli forces. This is absolutely prohibited under international law and amounts to a war crime,” the group said.
The group said that taking hostages in the context of hostilities also constituted a war crime.
“The civilians taken by Hamas must be immediately released, pending which their fate and whereabouts must be disclosed,” the experts said.
Separately, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned violence against civilians.
“We reject the practices of killing civilians or abusing them on both sides because they contravene morals, religion and international law,” the official Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted Abbas as saying.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said fuel powering emergency generators at hospitals could run out within hours.
“The human misery caused by this escalation is abhorrent, and I implore the sides to reduce the suffering of civilians,” ICRC regional director Fabrizio Carboni said in a statement on Thursday.
“As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays cant be taken. Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues.”
Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said there would be no exceptions to the siege without freedom for Israeli hostages.
“Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switch will be lifted, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home. Humanitarian for humanitarian. And nobody should preach us morals,” Katz posted on social media platform X.
Syria’s state television said Israel launched attacks on the main airports in the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo on Thursday.
Local media channel Sham FM said Syrian air defences were launched in response to both attacks. It said there had been damage but no casualties at the Aleppo airport, but did not give any information on the impact of the strike on Damascus Airport.
The Israeli military does not usually comment on such incidents, and there was no immediate statement from it today.
The attacks came a day before Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, was due to visit Syria.
Pakistan strongly condemned the “indiscriminate and disproportionate” use of force by Israeli authorities against the civilian population in Gaza and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch said in her weekly press briefing that Pakistan was deeply concerned by the fast deteriorating and dire humanitarian situation in Gaza due to the “inhumane blockade and collective punishment by Israeli forces”.
The FO spokesperson said that the decision to cut off electricity, fuel and water supplies was “unjust and should be reversed as it would severely impact the lives of millions of people in the enclave”.
“The current cycle of aggression and violence is a sad reminder and a direct consequence of over seven decades of illegal foreign occupation, aggression and disrespect for international law, including UNSC resolutions that recognise the inalienable right to self-determination of the Palestinian people,” she added.
