“The destruction is unimaginable” in Gaza, Press briefing the Head of OHCHR Occupied Palestinian Territory on the situation in Gaza

19 June 2024

I have just returned from Gaza. I was there from 13 to 18 June, during which I visited several locations, including Khan Younis, Al Mawasi, and Deir Al Balah.

I visited Gaza in my capacity as the protection coordinator in humanitarian response.

The sounds of bombs, guns, drones are constant. The sound of war is non-stop, day and night. In my 22 years of work at the UN, including in many conflict and post-conflict situations, I have never seen such challenges for the UN and human rights and humanitarian aid partners to operate.

The destruction is unimaginable. The landscape of Khan Younis, for instance, has been changed. It’s full of completely and partially destroyed buildings, infrastructure.

People I met told me how they have moved 10 times. They are exhausted. They are barely surviving. There are camps everywhere. Everyone is worried not only about the here and now, but also about what next. All of them not only don’t have a Plan B, they don’t have a Plan A. They don’t know what to do. They are simply living day to day. The only question they have is when this will all end. There is a real sense of helplessness.

And when you’ve moved 10 times, your community support networks fall apart. Even so, there are organizations that are still trying to provide support and protection services in this impossible situation to the most vulnerable – unaccompanied children, victims of gender-based violence, people with disabilities, individuals who have lost their entire families.

Deir Al Balah was already densely populated before people fled here en masse to escape the carnage of Rafah and the north. Now people are living on top of one another. At one UNWRA school I visited there were 14,000 people. There, they have just 25 toilets. It’s unimaginable.

I met doctors at Al Aqsa hospital who described the situation as dire, beyond the killing wrought by the bombs and guns. They talk about water-borne diseases, scabies, and other diseases. The hospitals are packed to overflowing. And the smell is unbearable.

In most parts of Gaza, you see garbage everywhere, for hundreds and hundreds of metres. Sewage is spilling into tents. There is no clean water. I fear a significant number will die from illness. If the bombs don’t kill, disease will. The psycho-social impact of this is frightening. The fabric of society has been ripped apart. As the High Commissioner has repeatedly said the hostages must be released, the binding decisions of the Security Council and of the International Court Justice must be respected and there must be ceasefire now.

Beyond the humanitarian catastrophe, our Office has also been assessing Israel’s choices of methods and means of conducting hostilities. Today’s report looks at their extensive use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas, and how they have failed to ensure that they effectively distinguish between civilians and fighters.

The report details a pattern of attacks using heavy bombs in densely populated areas. This raises serious concerns under the laws of war with respect to the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack. International humanitarian law lays out the very clear obligations of parties to armed conflicts that make protection of civilians a priority.

It is now eight months since the first of these extremely serious incidents occurred. Yet still there is no clarity as to what happened or steps toward accountability.