UN urges access for international investigators to Gaza after bodies found

The United Nations has called for international investigators to be granted access to all of Gaza to assist with evidence-gathering as hundreds of bodies are pulled from the rubble following Israel's extensive bombing of the territory. UN rights chief Volker Turk warned that the recovery of human remains, mostly of women and children, nearly three years after the Israeli bombardment, raises the possibility that war crimes have been committed.

Turk lamented that Israeli bulldozers continue to level parts of Gaza without respect for the dead under the rubble, highlighting how much of Gaza has been flattened by Israeli attacks. The UN pointed out that the Palestinian Civil Defence has reported over 630 bodies and other human remains recovered from destroyed buildings in Gaza since November, estimating the total number of missing to be over 8,000.

Turk stressed the importance of documenting and identifying these victims, preserving forensic evidence and informing their families, urging every feasible effort to be taken to address the alleged war crimes.