The UN human rights chief has sharply criticised Israel, calling recent killings by its soldiers during Palestinian demonstrations along the Gaza border fence “shocking” and saying living conditions inflicted by Israel’s 11-year blockade of the territory are “grossly inadequate”.
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a video address to the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People that the situation in Gaza has escalated dramatically in recent months with “the potential to generate threats to peace across a far broader region.”
Zeid, who heads the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said it is essential for all parties to cooperate with the independent, international commission of inquiry into the recent deadly events in Gaza that his office is helping to establish.