Several countries and international organizations have condemned Israel’s killing of at least 274 Palestinians during an operation to free four Israeli captives in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Authorities in the Gaza Strip said on Sunday that at least 698 other people had been injured in an “unprecedented brutal attack”, some in critical condition, as hospitals struggled to cope with the flow of injured or of corpses.
Reporting from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hind Khoudary said on Sunday that civil defense teams were still finding dead or injured Palestinians under rubble following the Nuseirat attack, as new airstrikes target areas across the enclave.
“The bombing continues intensely and it is very difficult for relief workers to reach the killed and injured Palestinians. They tell us that there are still people on the roads and under the rubble that they have not been able to reach,” she said.
Since October 7, the Israeli military offensive has killed at least 37,084 Palestinians and injured 84,494 others, Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement.
Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said the Palestinian Authority was seeking to convene an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council following the Nuseirat attack.
The Palestinian armed group Hamas said that Israel’s release of four captives “will not change the strategic failure of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip”, especially after taking eight months to carry out the operation.
He also said reports that the United States facilitated the Israeli operation proved once again that Washington was “complicit and completely implicated in the war crimes being carried out” in the besieged coastal enclave.
European Union, Norway
Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, had a stronger reaction, writing in an article on X that “the bloodshed must stop immediately.”
“Reports from Gaza of another massacre of civilians are appalling. We condemn this in the strongest possible terms,” he said.
Andreas Motzfeldt Kravik, Norway’s deputy foreign minister, wrote on calling for the release of captives and an immediate ceasefire.
OIC, Arab Parliament
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which represents 57 member states, most of which are Muslim-majority, condemned what it called “the horrific massacre carried out by the Israeli occupation army, which led to the killing and injury of hundreds of Palestinians. for most women and children.
He called for investigation, accountability and sanctions in accordance with international law, emphasizing the importance of the role of the International Criminal Court in this regard.
The Cairo-based Arab Parliament denounced the “massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation” and held Israel and the United States responsible.
Türkiye
In a statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the country “deplored” the Israeli attack, which it described as “barbaric” and which adds to a long list of “crimes” committed by Israel in Gaza.
“We call on the institutions responsible for maintaining international peace and security, in particular the United Nations Security Council, to exercise their responsibility to put an end to the commission of these crimes by Israel,” the statement added.
Iran
The Foreign Office has blamed the latest killing of hundreds of Palestinians on “inaction” by world governments and the UN Security Council.
“These horrific and shocking crimes… are the result of the inaction of governments and responsible international bodies, including the United Nations Security Council, in the face of eight months of war crimes and violations committed by the Zionist regime (Israel),” said spokesman Nasser Kanaani. said in a statement.
“The massacred and bloodied bodies of Palestinian civilians and children are the result of the continued injection of American and European weapons into the arsenals of the Zionist regime, and of the continued support of the United States and a number of countries Europeans on the diet. »
Jordan, Egypt
Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement on X that the Israeli attack is “a practice that reflects the systematic targeting of Palestinian civilians, Israeli persistence in violating international law and international humanitarian law and to commit war crimes.” .
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry called the Nuseirat attack “a blatant violation of all provisions of international law and international humanitarian law, as well as all values of humanity and human rights.”
“Egypt holds Israel legally and morally responsible for this blatant aggression, demanding that Israel respect its obligations as the occupying power and stop indiscriminately targeting Palestinian civilians, including those in areas where they been moved. »
The United Nations
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a message on UN personnel killed in Gaza.
Martin Griffiths, the UN relief chief, called the Nuseirat refugee camp “the epicenter of the seismic trauma that Gaza’s civilians continue to suffer” and said all remaining prisoners must be released and the war had to end.
Saul Takahashi, former deputy head of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in occupied Palestine and professor of human rights and peace studies at Jogakuin University in Osaka, said to Tel Aviv Tribune that the Western response to the killings of Palestinians showed a “double standard.”
“There is a huge double standard when it comes to human lives: the lives of Israelis, Ukrainians, white people are important, but when it comes to Palestinians, brown people, Arabs in general, they are not as important. important, we don’t really care,” Takahashi said from Toyohashi in Japan.
“As your correspondent mentioned, the Israeli media hardly talks about the loss of Palestinian lives. It’s pretty much the same in the American media and in many other international media.”
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, said the release of the captives should not have come at the cost of more than 200 Palestinian lives, with foreign soldiers “treacherously hiding in a humanitarian truck “.
“Israel could have released all the hostages, alive and intact, eight months ago, when the first ceasefire and hostage exchange was put on the table,” she wrote on X, adding that Israel’s continued killing of Palestinians while refusing a deal exposes Israel’s identity. “Genocidal intent turned into action.”
“Countries that celebrate the release of four Israeli hostages without saying a word about the hundreds of Palestinians killed and the thousands arbitrarily detained by Israel have lost their moral credibility for generations and do not deserve to be part of a body of UN human rights. » wrote Balakrishnan Rajagopal, another UN special rapporteur.
Other international organizations
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, which has teams operating at Al-Aqsa hospital where most of the wounded were taken on Saturday, described a “nightmare” in the facility, short of supplies. medicine, fuel and food.
“How many more men, women and children must be killed before world leaders decide to put an end to this massacre? » said Samuel Johann, MSF coordinator in Gaza.
Following the intense bombardments carried out by Israeli forces this Saturday morning in the central area of #Gazaour teams work alongside medical staff at Al-Aqsa and Nasser hospitals to treat an overwhelming number of seriously injured patients, many of whom are women and children. pic.twitter.com/JCcPVAfxuE
– MSF International (@MSF) June 8, 2024
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch and visiting professor at Princeton University, told Tel Aviv Tribune that a daytime operation meant that “some of the bombs clearly fell on or right next to a food market.” Nuseirat which was full of people.”
“And in these circumstances, it is foreseeable that there will be a greater number of civilian casualties than if it were a night operation. This is incompatible with the duty to take all possible precautions to prevent harm to civilians.
Israel and its allies welcome the operation
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Operation Nuseirat “would be written in history” and the Israeli army praised its commandos for a “bold” operation in broad daylight.
Israel’s top diplomat rejected unspecified accusations of “war crimes” during the operation. “We will continue to act with determination and force, in accordance with our right of self-defense, until all hostages are released and Hamas is defeated,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said.
US President Joe Biden, who was hosted in Paris on Saturday by French President Emmanuel Macron during a state visit, welcomed the release of the captives without commenting on the massacre of Palestinians.
“We will not stop working until all the hostages return home and a ceasefire is reached. “It’s essential,” he said.
The US military denied that its floating jetty off the coast of Gaza or any equipment, personnel or assets were used in the operation, saying “an area south of the facility was being used by the Israelis.”
Macron also praised the rescue mission and called for a permanent political solution to the war on Gaza, but did not mention the large number of civilian deaths.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the captives’ release was a “huge relief”, ignoring the unusually high death toll.
