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GENEVA, 12 Jun (AP) \u2014 The U.N. human rights office is citing possible war crimes by Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in connection with a deadly raid by Israeli forces that freed four hostages over the weekend and killed hundreds of Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Office spokesman Jeremy Laurence expressed concerns about possible violations of rules of proportionality, distinction and precaution by the Israeli forces in Saturday\u2019s raid at the urban Nuseirat refugee camp.<\/p>\n
Palestinian health officials say at least 274 Palestinians, including dozens of women and children, were killed in the operation.<\/p>\n
Laurence said Palestinian armed groups who are holding hostages in densely populated areas are putting the lives of nearby civilians and the hostages at \u201cadded risks\u201d from the hostilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll these actions by both parties may amount to war crimes,\u201d he told a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was catastrophic, the way that this was carried out in that civilians \u2014 again \u2014 were caught smack bang in the middle of this,\u201d Laurence added.<\/p>\n
Alluding to the \u201cordeal\u201d faced by hostages and their families, he said: \u201cThe fact that four hostages are now free is clearly very good news. These hostages should never have been taken in the first place. That\u2019s a breach of international humanitarian law. They must be freed. All of them. Promptly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Israeli diplomatic mission in Geneva criticized the U.N. human rights chief, Volker T\u00fcrk, saying the \u201chigh commissioner has finally realized that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYet, instead of taking a clear and consistent stance against this abhorrent strategy, he falls into the habit of slandering Israel,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThis time, for rescuing our hostages.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
The Associated Press could not immediately reach the rights office for a comment.<\/p>\n
Israel launched its war against Hamas after the group\u2019s stunning Oct. 7 attack, in which the militants stormed into southern Israel, killed about 1,200 people \u2014 mostly civilians \u2014 and took about 250 hostage.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 36,730 people, according to Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.<\/p>\n
Palestinians are facing widespread hunger because the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies. U.N. agencies say over 1 million in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July.<\/p>\n
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GENEVA, 12 Jun (AP) \u2014 The U.N. human rights office is citing possible war crimes by Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in connection with a deadly raid by Israeli forces that freed four hostages over the weekend and killed hundreds of Palestinians. Office spokesman Jeremy Laurence expressed concerns about possible violations of rules of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-242089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}