UN: Israeli use of heavy bombs raises ‘serious concerns’ over martial law

GENEVA

Israel’s repeated use of heavy bombs in the densely populated Gaza Strip indicates repeated violations of the laws of war, the UN said on Wednesday, pointing to six attacks in which at least 218 people were killed.

Class=”cf”>

The United Nations Office for Human Rights provided details of the six attacks in a recent report. They are typical of a worrying pattern. Bombs weighing up to 900 kilograms are believed to have been used on residential buildings, a school, refugee camps and a market.

The human rights office said it had confirmed 218 deaths in the attacks, which took place in the first months of the war that broke out in Gaza on October 7, 2023, but said it had information suggesting the death toll “could be much higher.”

“The requirement to select means and methods of warfare so as to avoid or at least minimize harm to the civilian population was apparently consistently violated in Israel’s bombing raids,” UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk said in a statement.

The report concludes that the series of Israeli attacks, such as the six attacks between October 9 and December 2 last year, indicate that the Israeli military has “violated fundamental principles of the laws of war on multiple occasions,” the statement said.

The attacks listed included the attacks on the Ash Shujaiyeh neighborhood in Gaza City on December 2 last year.

Class=”cf”>

It caused devastation along a diagonal of about 130 meters, destroying 15 buildings and damaging at least 14 others, it was said.

The extent of the damage and the craters visible on satellite images indicate that about nine 2,000-pound GBU-31 bombs were used, it said. Information has also been received that at least 60 people were killed.

GBU-31, as well as 1,000-pound GBU-32 and 250-pound GBU-39 “are primarily used to penetrate multiple stories of concrete and can completely collapse tall buildings,” Jeremy Laurence, spokesman for the UN Office for Human Rights, told reporters.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Wednesday that at least seven people were killed overnight in Israeli air strikes on tents in the Al Mawasi humanitarian area in western Rafah.

Athens: Greece must take in Gaza children

Meanwhile, in view of the increasing number of civilian deaths, Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis told the media that Europe must take in children injured and traumatized by the war.

Class=”cf”>

“We must face this tragedy with clarity. Europe should be open to injured people from Gaza, but also to children who are exposed to famine or other dangers.”

The Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip said on Wednesday that at least 37,396 people had been killed during the more than eight-month war between Israel and Palestinian militants in the territory.

U.N,