The United Nations has raised serious concerns about reports that Israeli soldiers evacuated more than 100 Palestinians into a house which they shelled a day later, killing about 30 people.
The incident allegedly happened in Zeitoun, south of Gaza city, where Red Cross workers found four small children next to the corpses of their mothers on Wednesday.
In a new report, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cited reports of “extensive destruction and many deaths” in the area.
It said: “According to several testimonies, on January 4th Israeli foot soldiers evacuated approximately 110 Palestinians into a single residence house in Zeitoun (half of whom were children) warning them to stay indoors.
“Twenty-four hours later, Israeli forces shelled the home repeatedly, killing approximately 30.”
The OCHA described it as “one of the gravest incidents” since the start of the Gaza conflict on December 27th.
UN Under-Secretary-General for humanitarian affairs John Holmes on Wednesday cited the deaths in Zeitoun as an example of the “dreadful incidents that are coming to our notice” in Gaza.
Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called today for "credible and independent" investigations into any violations of international humanitarian law in the Gaza conflict which may constitute war crimes.
She said that UN human rights monitors must be deployed in Israel as well as Gaza and the West Bank to document violations and their perpetrators.
"The vicious cycle of provocation and retribution must be brought to an end," she said.
Ms Pillay was addressing a special session of the UN Human Rights Council a day after the Security Council adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the 14-day-old conflict and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
She said both Israel and Hamas authorities were obliged to respect three cardinal principles of international humanitarian law, embodied in the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
These were proportionality, distinction between combatants and civilians as well as military targets and civilian infrastructure, and feasible precautions to avoid or minimise incidental loss of civilian life.
The International Committee of the Red Cross yesterday accused the Israeli military of “unacceptable” delays in allowing rescue workers to reach homes in Zeitoun hit by shelling.
In a strongly-worded statement it said: “The ICRC believes that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded.”
Agencies