Gaza about to explode, UN warns
Envoy briefs Security Council as Israelis kill three more Palestinians in fresh border clashes
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is continuing with no prospects for a political resolution and “Gaza is about to explode,” a senior UN official has said.
“Old wounds continue to bleed and deepen as we speak, risking the outbreak of another war,” Nikolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told the Security Council during an open debate.
While his briefing covered the situations in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon, it was largely focused on the unfolding crisis along the Gaza border.
Yesterday, three Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces in clashes on the border, the health ministry in the enclave said, in the latest day of protests called the Great March of Return. The Palestinian death toll since protests began on March 30 has now reached 44, with at least 5,500 injured.
Israel must stop the Israeli military escalation by its occupation security forces along the Gaza border and must hold to account those responsible for the many deaths and injuries sustained by Palestinians in the past month, the UN human rights chief said yesterday.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussain said in a statement that in the past four weeks, 42 Palestinians had been killed and more than 5,500 wounded along the fence in Gaza, with no reports of Israeli casualties.
“The loss of life is deplorable, and the staggering number of injuries caused by live ammunition only confirms the sense that excessive force has been used against demonstrators not once, not twice, but repeatedly,” Al Hussain said.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it did had no immediate comment on Al Hussain’s statement.
His comments came as hundreds of protesters gathered at a tent camp east of Gaza City.
Some burnt tyres and threw stones near the fence. Israeli occupation troops fired intensive volleys of tear gas, some canisters landing 300 metres inside Gaza. A few gunshots were heard.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 25 people were hurt, but did not give a breakdown by types of injury.
The death toll includes 35 people killed during demonstrations as part of the “Great March of Return” — evoking a longtime call for refugees to regain ancestral homes in what is now Israel — and appear to have been unarmed and no imminent threat to Israeli security forces, the statement said.
The deaths could constitute wilful killings in the context of an occupation, a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Al Hussain said.
Four children were shot dead by Israeli forces, three of them killed by a bullet to the head or neck, he said. Another 233 children were injured by live ammunition, some sustaining injuries causing lifelong disabilities including amputations.
“It is difficult to see how children, even those throwing stones, can present a threat of imminent death or serious injury to heavily protected security force personnel,” Zeid said.
United Nations warnings about Israeli military escalation appeared to have gone unheeded, with no change in Israeli tactics, and Israel only seems to carry out serious investigations when there was independent video evidence, he said.
Otherwise there was little or no effort to apply the rule of law.
Al Hussain said he was extremely concerned that by the end of the day, and forthcoming Fridays, the traditional day of protest, more Palestinians would be killed, simply because they approached a fence while exercising their right to protest.
“These trends call into question to what extent the ISF’s rules of engagement, which are not public, are in line with international law, or at least to what degree the ISF abides by its own rules.”
‘Gaza about to explode’
Meanwhile, another senior United Nations official warned that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is continuing with no prospects for a political resolution and “Gaza is about to explode.”
“Old wounds continue to bleed and deepen as we speak, risking the outbreak of another war,” Nikolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told the Security Council during an open debate on the crises affecting the region.
“People should not be destined to spend their lives surrounded by borders they are forbidden to cross, or waters they are forbidden to navigate,” he said.
He urged stepped-up efforts to support the parties in advancing a sustainable Israeli-Palestinian peace on the basis of the two-state solution.