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UN PhotoOHCHR / GAZA CHILDREN WOMEN KILLINGS
STORY: OHCHR / GAZA CHILDREN WOMEN KILLINGS
TRT: 04:10
SOURCE: UNTV / OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 23 APRIL 2024, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior, Palais des Nations
23 APRIL 2024, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today decried a series of Israeli strikes on Rafah in the past few days that killed mostly children and women, repeating his warning against a full-scale incursion on an area where 1.2 million civilians have been forcibly cornered.”
4. Wide shot, briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Such an operation would lead to further breaches of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and risks more deaths, injuries and displacement on a large scale – even further atrocity crimes, for which those responsible would be held accountable.”
6. Wide shot, briefing room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The latest images of a premature child taken from the womb of her dying mother, of the adjacent two houses where 15 children and five women were killed -- this is beyond warfare.”
8. Med shot, journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“This is something that struck me as a woman, as a mother, the premature child that was delivered from the dying mother’s womb. It really struck me, really affected me. And then I looked at what UNFPA had said: an estimated 180 women are giving birth every day in Gaza in inhumane, unimaginable conditions. Now, this woman was dying when the premature baby was taken out. A hundred- and eighty-women giving birth every day, many probably through caesarean sections, without anaesthesia, in inhumane, deplorable conditions, not knowing whether their child will survive, not knowing whether they will survive.”
10. Med shot, journalist
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Every 10 minutes, a child is killed or wounded. I’ll let you calculate how many children must have been killed or wounded since this briefing began today. They are protected under the laws of war, and yet they are ones who are disproportionately paying the ultimate price in this war.”
12. Wide shot, briefing room
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The High Commissioner is horrified by the destruction of Al Nasser Medical Complex and Al Shifa Medical Complex and the reported discovery of mass graves in and around these locations. He calls for independent, effective, and transparent investigations into the deaths.”
14. Med shot, journalists
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Given the prevailing climate of impunity, this should include international investigators. Hospitals themselves are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law. And the intentional killing of civilians, detainees, and others who are hors de combat is a war crime.”
16. Wide shot, briefing room
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The High-Commissioner said that the unspeakable suffering caused by the fighting -- alongside the resulting misery and destruction, starvation and disease, and the risk of wider conflict – must end once and for all. We reiterate our call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and those held in arbitrary detention, and the unfettered flow of humanitarian aid.”
18. Wide shot, briefing room
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Grave human rights violations are continuing unabated in the occupied West Bank. Despite international condemnation of massive settler attacks from 12-14 April facilitated by the Israeli security forces, settler violence has continued with the support, protection, and participation of the Israeli security forces.”
20. Wide shot, briefing room
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“We have received reports that several Palestinians were unlawfully killed and that the ISF used unarmed Palestinians to shield their forces from attack and killed others in apparent extrajudicial executions. Dozens were reportedly detained and ill-treated. And ISF inflicted unprecedented and apparently wanton destruction on the camp and its infrastructure.”
22. Wide shot dais
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk today (23 Apr) decried a series of Israeli strikes on Rafah in the past few days that killed mostly children and women, repeating his warning against a full-scale incursion on an area where 1.2 million civilians have been forcibly cornered.
“Such an operation would lead to further breaches of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and risks more deaths, injuries and displacement on a large scale – even further atrocity crimes, for which those responsible would be held accountable,” said Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at a press briefing in Geneva.
“The world’s leaders stand united on the imperative of protecting the civilian population trapped in Rafah,” she told reporters, quoting the UN Human Rights Chief.
On 19 April, an apartment building was hit in Tal Al Sultan area in Rafah, killing nine Palestinians, including six children and two women. Another strike on two adjacent houses in At Tanour area in eastern Rafah on 20 April reportedly killed 20 Palestinians – 15 children and five women. A strike on As Shabora Camp in Rafah on the same day reportedly left four dead, including a girl and a pregnant woman.
Shamdasani described the images of the pregnant woman’s premature child taken from the womb of her dying mother. “This is beyond warfare.”
“This is something that struck me as a woman, as a mother, the premature child that was delivered from the dying mother’s womb. It really struck me, really affected me,” she said. “An estimated 180 women are giving birth every day in Gaza in inhumane, unimaginable conditions. Now, this woman was dying when the premature baby was taken out. A hundred- and eighty-women giving birth every day, many probably through caesarean sections, without anaesthesia, in inhumane, deplorable conditions, not knowing whether their child will survive, not knowing whether they will survive.”
The UN Human Rights Office spokesperson also said that a child is killed or wounded every 10 minutes in Gaza. “I’ll let you calculate how many children must have been killed or wounded since this briefing began today. They are protected under the laws of war, and yet they are ones who are disproportionately paying the ultimate price in this war.”
As of 22 April, according to the authorities in Gaza, of the 34,151 Palestinians killed in Gaza, 14,685 have been children and 9,670 women. Another 77,084 have been injured, and over 7,000 others are assumed to be under the rubble.
“The High Commissioner is horrified by the destruction of Al Nasser Medical Complex and Al Shifa Medical Complex and the reported discovery of mass graves in and around these locations. He calls for independent, effective, and transparent investigations into the deaths,” Shamdasani said.
“Given the prevailing climate of impunity, this should include international investigators. Hospitals themselves are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law. And the intentional killing of civilians, detainees, and others who are hors de combat is a war crime.”
She quoted Türk as saying that the “unspeakable suffering caused by the fighting – alongside the resulting misery and destruction, starvation and disease, and the risk of wider conflict – must end once and for all.”
“We reiterate our call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and those held in arbitrary detention, and the unfettered flow of humanitarian aid,” she told reporters.
At the same time, in the occupied West Bank, “grave human rights violations are continuing unabated,” she said. “Despite international condemnation of massive settler attacks from 12-14 April facilitated by the Israeli security forces, settler violence has continued with the support, protection, and participation of the Israeli security forces.”
During a 50-hour long operation into Nur Shams refugee camp and Tulkarem city starting on 18 April, the Israeli security forces deployed ground troops, bulldozers, and drones, and sealed the camp. Fourteen Palestinians were killed, three of them children. Ten members of the Israeli security forces were hurt.
“We have received reports that several Palestinians were unlawfully killed and that the ISF used unarmed Palestinians to shield their forces from attack and killed others in apparent extrajudicial executions,” said Shamdasani. “Dozens were reportedly detained and ill-treated. And ISF inflicted unprecedented and apparently wanton destruction on the camp and its infrastructure.”
On 20 April, the ISF or settlers shot and killed a 50-year-old Palestinian ambulance driver. The ambulance was evacuating two Palestinians injured by live ammunition during an attack by settlers, who were accompanied by the ISF, in As Sawiya, Nablus.
