GENEVA/TEL AVIV: The UN's rights chief on Friday decried Israel's sharp escalation of attacks in Gaza — and an apparent push to permanently displace the population — as amounting to "ethnic cleansing".
"This latest barrage of bombs... and the denial of humanitarian assistance underline that there appears to be a push for a permanent demographic shift in Gaza that is in defiance of international law and is tantamount to ethnic cleansing," Volker Turk said in a statement, reported by AFP.
On Friday, at least 100 people were killed in the northern Gaza strip following multiple Israeli air strikes, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. Dozens remain trapped under rubble, a spokesman for the Hamas-controlled civil defence agency said.
The Hamas-controlled health authority said 93 people have been killed and more than 200 injured. The figures do not distinguish between civilian and military casualties; and cannot be independently verified.
Israel on Friday said its air force "struck over 150 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip including anti-tank missile posts, terrorist cells, military structures" and centres it said "terrorists" were using to carry out attacks against its troops.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), on their Telegram channel, said they had "eliminated several terrorists who were operating in an observation compound" in northern Gaza and has also dismantled "terrorist infrastructure" in southern Gaza.
The IDF information could also not be independently verified.
WAFA reported that more than 10 houses were hit in the city of Beit Lahia and the Jabalia refugee district. It said that Israel used warplanes, helicopters, drones and naval vessels in the attack.
Ambulances are currently unable to reach the area due to destroyed roads, it added. On social media footage circulated purportedly showing images of the attacks' victims.
Israel's military stated, upon request, that it was investigating the report.
Plans to expand Gaza operations
The Israeli news site ynet, citing security officials, reported that the massive attacks in recent days were preparation for the deployment of additional troops. The Israeli government recently announced plans to expand its operations in the Gaza Strip.
US President Donald Trump spoke of a very serious situation in the area during a visit to the United Arab Emirates. "We're looking at Gaza, and we got to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving. A lot of people, there's a lot of bad things going on," Trump asserted.
Global civil society must push for the resumption of aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip, given that the current situation is "so grotesquely abnormal," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday.
"The situation as it has developed now is so grotesquely abnormal that some popular pressure on leaders around the world needs to happen," OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said in Geneva.
Israel's military has not allowed aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip for more than two months. The armed forces accuse the Palestinian extremist organisation Hamas of reselling aid supplies to the increasingly suffering population to fund fighters and weapons.
OCHA spokesman Laerke said the organisation has implemented robust security measures to prevent such misuse, although the diversion of small amounts can never be completely ruled out. The UN has previously demonstrated its ability to assist people in the Gaza Strip effectively, he said.
Laerke criticised a humanitarian aid plan, supported by Israel and the United States, via the newly established Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which would provide aid. — Agencies
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