UN rights chief warns Gaza remains raise concerns of Israeli war crimes

The United Nations' top human rights official has expressed deep concern over the potential war crimes occurring in Gaza, where the recovery of numerous body parts from rubble destroyed by Israeli strikes nearly three years ago continues. Volker Turk, the UN human rights chief, highlighted that the remains of entire families are being discovered at sites pulverized by Israeli attacks, and worries that these findings may only be a small portion of the overall tragedy.

Since November 2023, Palestinian Civil Defence teams have recovered over 630 body parts from buildings obliterated by Israeli strikes, estimating that more than 8,000 individuals remain missing under the debris.

Turk visited a site in Az Zeitoun, southeast of Gaza City, where Israeli strikes occurred in November 2023. His team recovered 96 bodies, 58 of whom were children and 23 women. The painstaking work of recovering these remains by hand has left Turk deeply saddened, as the families of the missing continue to face the grim reality of their loved ones' fates.

He called for evidence of potential war crimes to be preserved and for international investigators to be granted access to Gaza. He also emphasized Israel's obligations to search for missing individuals and recover the dead in a dignified manner, referencing a 2024 UN Human Rights Office report that raised concerns over Israeli strikes using heavy bombs on residential buildings and civilian sites.

The UN official's words come in the wake of the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks that killed 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostages, resulting in over 73,700 Palestinian deaths according to Gaza health authorities. Israel maintains it has made significant efforts to minimize civilian casualties, accusing Hamas of using them as human shields in densely populated areas.

However, Israel has blocked the entry of heavy machinery needed to clear the rubble from Gaza, according to Turk. Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, has urged for evidence and identification of human remains before any full clearance of the rubble.