CAIRO/GENEVA: Hundreds of UN staff at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have asked Volker Turk to explicitly describe the Gaza war as an unfolding genocide, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The letter sent on Wednesday said the staff consider that the legal criteria for genocide in the nearly two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza have been met, citing the scale, scope and nature of violations documented there.
"OHCHR has a strong legal and moral responsibility to denounce acts of genocide," said the letter signed by the Staff Committee on behalf of over 500 employees, which called on Turk to take a "clear and public position".
"Failing to denounce an unfolding genocide undermines the credibility of the UN and the human rights system itself," it added.
It cited the international body's perceived moral failure for not doing more to stop the 1994 Rwanda genocide that killed more than 1 million people.
There was no immediate response from the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Israel has previously rejected accusations of genocide in Gaza. The subsequent war in Gaza has killed almost 63,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, while a global hunger monitor says that part of it is suffering from famine.
Israeli forces killed at least 16 Palestinians across Gaza on Thursday and wounded dozens in the south of the enclave, local health officials said, as residents reported intensified military bombardment in the suburbs of Gaza City.
The military is preparing to take Gaza City, the enclave's largest urban centre, despite international calls on Israel to reconsider this over fears that the operation would cause significant casualties and displace the roughly one million Palestinians sheltering there.
In Gaza City, residents said families were fleeing their homes, with most heading towards the coast, as Israel forces bombarded the eastern suburbs of Shejaia, Zeitoun and Sabra. Thursday's deaths brought the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the past 24 hours to 71, according to the health ministry.
Israel officials describe Gaza City as the last stronghold of Hamas, which ignited the war with its deadly October 2023 attack on Israel.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it was continuing to operate throughout Gaza, targeting what it described as "terrorist organisations" and infrastructure.
The military had killed three fighters in the past day, it said, without saying how they had identified the individuals.
A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross said that 31 "weapon-wounded" patients, most with gunshot wounds, were admitted to the Red Cross Field Hospital in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. Four of them were declared dead on arrival. — Reuters
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