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STORY: OHCHR / OPT UPDATE
TRT: 2:42
SOURCE: UNTV CH / OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 16 APRIL 2024, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior, Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English)Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The UN Human Rights Office urges all States with influence to do everything in their power to halt the increasingly horrific human rights and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the rising violence and targeted attacks in the West Bank, and the heightened risk of wider escalation of conflict in the Middle East. Resolving the catastrophic situation of civilians in Gaza must remain a priority.”
4. Wide shot, Briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“No area of the Gaza Strip has been spared from Israel’s bombardment. We have nearly 1.7 million people who remain forcibly displaced, living in appalling conditions and under constant threat. In the past week alone, fighting has intensified in Middle Gaza leading to the displacement of some 10,000 people from in and around An Nuseirat camp and near Wadi Gaza.”
6. Wide shot, Briefing room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“In the West Bank, escalating violence over the past few days is also a matter of grave concern. Palestinians have been subjected to waves of attacks by hundreds of Israeli settlers, often accompanied or supported by Israeli Security Forces.”
8. Wide shot, Briefing room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Dozens of Palestinians have reportedly been injured, including through the use of firearms, by settlers and by Israeli security forces, and hundreds of homes and other buildings, as well as cars, have been torched. Three Israeli soldiers suffered injuries after they were hit with stones.”
10. Wide shot, Briefing room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Israel, as the occupying power, must take all measures in its power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety in the occupied West Bank. This obligation includes protecting Palestinians from settler attacks and ending unlawful use of force against Palestinians by Israeli security forces.”
12. Wide shot, Briefing room
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The Israeli Security Forces must immediately end their active participation in and support for settler attacks on Palestinians. Israeli authorities must instead prevent further attacks, including by bringing those responsible to account.”
14. Wide shot, Briefing room
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Neither Palestinians nor Israelis should have to take the law into their own hands to extract revenge.”
16. Wide shot, Briefing room
“The UN Human Rights Office urges all States with influence to do everything in their power to halt the increasingly horrific human rights and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the rising violence and targeted attacks in the West Bank, and the heightened risk of wider escalation of conflict in the Middle East,” Ravina Shamdasani, the UN Human Rights Office Spokesperson, said on Tuesday.
“Resolving the catastrophic situation of civilians in Gaza must remain a priority,” she told reporters at the UN bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
“Israel continues to impose unlawful restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian assistance, carry out widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, as well as attack those trying to deliver or access humanitarian assistance,” said Shamdasani. “The High Commissioner repeats that there must be an immediate ceasefire, the hostages released, and full, unfettered humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow immediately. Those delivering or trying to access humanitarian assistance must never be attacked.
“No area of the Gaza Strip has been spared from Israel’s bombardment. Nearly 1.7 million people remain forcibly displaced, living in appalling conditions and under constant threat.”
Shamdasani added that, in the past week alone, fighting had intensified in Middle Gaza leading to the displacement of some 10,000 people from in and around An Nuseirat camp and near Wadi Gaza.
“We have also received reports that during Eid al-Fitr last week, the Israel Defense Forces attacked at least eight mosques in An Nuseirat and Gaza City, and struck a further three on 14 April,” she said, adding that since October 2023, 534 mosques have been destroyed or damaged according to the Gaza Government Media Office. “Places of worship are protected under the laws of war.”
The UN Human Rights Office spokesperson also said that on 14 April, Israeli forces reportedly opened fire on a group of Palestinians on Al Rashid Road who were attempting to return to their homes in northern Gaza, killing at least one Palestinian woman and 11 others were injured. “Intentional targeting and killing of civilians is a war crime,” she said.
In the occupied West Bank, escalating violence over the past few days is also a matter of grave concern, said Shamdasani. “Palestinians have been subjected to waves of attacks by hundreds of Israeli settlers, often accompanied or supported by Israeli Security Forces. Following the killing of a 14-year-old Israeli boy from a settler family, four Palestinians, including a child, were killed and Palestinian property was destroyed in revenge attacks.
“Dozens of Palestinians were reportedly injured, including through the use of firearms, by settlers and Israeli security forces, and hundreds of homes and other buildings, as well as cars, were torched. Three Israeli soldiers suffered injuries after they were hit with stones. It was also reported that settlers established at least two new outposts in the past two days in the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills, near Palestinian communities which have been repeatedly attacked by settlers in the past months and are at imminent risk of being forcibly transferred from their homes and their lands,” said Shamdasani.
She added that, as the occupying power, Israel “must take all measures in its power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety in the occupied West Bank”.
“This obligation includes protecting Palestinians from settler attacks and ending unlawful use of force against Palestinians by Israeli security forces.”
The UN Human Rights Office spokesperson added that Israeli security forces “must immediately end their active participation in and support for settler attacks on Palestinians”.
“Israeli authorities must instead prevent further attacks, including by bringing those responsible to account. Those reasonably suspected of criminal acts, including murder or other unlawful killings, must be brought to justice through a judicial process that complies with international human rights standards, and follows a prompt, impartial, independent, effective and transparent investigation,” Shamdasani said.
“Neither Palestinians nor Israelis should take the law into their own hands to extract revenge.”
