The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, issued a scathing statement today condemning ongoing deadly attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza as they attempt to access desperately needed food aid.

Describing the situation as "unconscionable," Türk called for immediate investigations and accountability for what may constitute grave breaches of international law.

“For a third day running, people were killed around an aid distribution site run by the ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’,” Türk stated. “This morning, we have received information that dozens more people were killed and injured.”

His remarks come amid growing international concern over repeated incidents in which hungry civilians have been gunned down or killed in airstrikes while trying to obtain limited food aid in the besieged territory.

The UN rights chief underscored the legal gravity of the situation, asserting: “There must be a prompt and impartial investigation into each of these attacks, and those responsible held to account. Attacks directed against civilians constitute a grave breach of international law, and a war crime.”

Türk also denounced the broader context of systematic deprivation faced by Palestinians in Gaza, which he described as “presenting them with the grimmest of choices: die from starvation or risk being killed while trying to access the meagre food that is being made available through Israel’s militarized humanitarian assistance mechanism.”

He criticized the nature of the aid process itself, saying it “endangers lives and violates international standards on aid distribution, as the United Nations has repeatedly warned.”

The High Commissioner went further, warning that the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian access may itself constitute a war crime. “The willful impediment of access to food and other life-sustaining relief supplies for civilians may constitute a war crime,” he said. “The threat of starvation, together with 20 months of killing of civilians and destruction on a massive scale, repeated forced displacements, intolerable, dehumanizing rhetoric and threats by Israel’s leadership to empty the Strip of its population, also constitute elements of the most serious crimes under international law.”

Türk also referenced the International Court of Justice’s 2024 ruling, which found that Palestinians in Gaza were at a real and imminent risk of irreparable harm under the Genocide Convention. He reminded the international community that the Court had issued binding orders obligating Israel to ensure the unhindered provision of life-saving aid in full cooperation with the United Nations.

“In defiance of those orders,” Türk emphasized, “we continue to see appalling violations and obstruction of humanitarian relief. There is no justification for failing to comply with these obligations.”

The statement adds to growing calls from UN agencies and humanitarian groups for an immediate ceasefire and full-scale humanitarian access to Gaza, where hunger, disease, and constant bombardment have created one of the world’s most acute humanitarian emergencies. (ILKHA)