“What the Zionist enemy carried out in the Nuseirat area in the central Gaza Strip is a compounded war crime, and the first to be harmed by it are its captives.”
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to housing has rebuked countries he accused of bias about Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip following the massacre in Nuseirat that killed more than 210 Palestinians.
“Countries that celebrate the release of four Israeli hostages without saying a word about the hundreds of Palestinians killed and thousands held in arbitrary detention by Israel, have lost moral credibility for generations and don’t deserve to be on any UN human rights body,” Balakrishnan Rajagopal said on X, following Israel’s attack on Saturday.
The Israeli bombing targeted the market in Nuseirat and the area around the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah.
The Gaza Government Media Office said that at least 210 Palestinians were killed and more than 400 injured on Saturday in severe Israeli airstrikes targeting Nuseirat refugee camp, areas east of Deir al-Balah, and al-Bureij and al-Maghazi camps in central Gaza. This coincided with a sudden incursion of vehicles east and northwest of Nuseirat.
Countries that celebrate the release of four Israeli hostages without saying a word about the hundreds of Palestinians killed and thousands held in arbitrary detention by Israel, have lost moral credibility for generations and don’t deserve to be on any UN human rights body.
— UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing (@adequatehousing) June 8, 2024
Earlier, the Israeli army announced that it had launched attacks on various locations in the central part of the Gaza Strip and had rescued four captives from two different areas.
‘US Hostage Cell’
The American news website Axios said that “the U.S. hostage cell in Israel supported the effort” to rescue the captives.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement “The United States is supporting all efforts to secure the release of hostages still held by Hamas, including American citizens.”
He said, “This includes through ongoing negotiations or other means.”
Abu Obeida, the military spokesman of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas, said in a statement that “What the Zionist enemy carried out in the Nuseirat area in the central Gaza Strip is a compounded war crime, and the first to be harmed by it are its captives.”
“The enemy managed to liberate some of its captives by committing horrific massacres, but at the same time, it killed some of them during the operation,” he added.
On Friday, Rajagopal said he welcomed the decision by the UN to put Israel on the “blacklist for harming children in conflict zones.”
“Arms embargo against Israel by the US and all other countries and companies should follow,” he stressed.
Highly welcome this decision by the UN to put Israel on blacklist for harming children in conflict zones. Arms embargo against Israel by the US and all other countries and companies should follow. https://t.co/0hl3DCAYf3
— UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing (@adequatehousing) June 7, 2024
Over 37,000 Killed
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 37,084 Palestinians have been killed, and 84,494 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(PC, Anadolu)
