• 900 Palestinians dead; four journalists killed by indiscriminate bombardment
• US suggests Gaza ‘safe passage’; aid groups call for ‘humanitarian corridor’

GAZA: Israel claimed to have recaptured the border areas of Gaza on Tuesday as fear and chaos reigned among the 2.3 million Palestinians living in the coastal territory, which has been hammered by thousands of Israeli munitions for four days now.

A top United Nations official, however, has declared said a total siege of the Pal­estinian enclave is banned under international law.

Gaza’s health ministry said the bombing had killed around 900 people and wounded 4,250. In Gaza City, entire blocks have been red­uced to rubble. The strikes intensified as night fell, sha­king the ground and sending more columns of smoke and flames into the sky.

Meanwhile, Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said the imposition of sieges that endanger the lives of civilians by depriving them of goods essential for their survival is prohibited under international humanitarian law.

“International humanitarian law is clear: the obligation to take constant care to spare the civilian population and civilian objects remains applicable throughout the attacks,” Mr Turk said in a statement.

The siege risks seriously compounding the already dire human rights and humanitarian situation in Gaza, including the capacity of medical facilities to operate, especially in light of increasing numbers of injured, the statement said.

Any restrictions on the movement of people and goods to implement a siege must be justified by military necessity, or may amount to collective punishment, the statement added.

Journalists killed

Four Palestinian journalists were among those killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza City on Tuesday, media uni­ons and officials have said.

The latest deaths bring the number of Palestinian journalists killed in the fighting since Saturday to eight, the Palestinian Press Union said in a statement.

The chief of Gaza’s Hamas-run government media office, Salameh Maarouf, identified the three as Said al-Taweel, director of Al-Khamisa news agency; press photographer Moham­med Sobboh, and Hisham Nawajhah, a correspondent for a Gaza news agency.

Later in the day, the press union said the head of its committee of women journalists, Salam Khalil, was killed along with her husband and children when the family’s home in the northern Gaza Strip was hit in a “treacherous” Israeli bombing.

‘Clear evidence’ on war crimes

Separately, the ongoing UN investigation into alleged human rights violations in the Israeli-Palestinian war said there was “already clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed” since Saturday’s surprise Hamas assault.

“All those who have violated international law and targeted civilians must be held accountable for their crimes,” said the Commission of Inquiry.

It is also “gravely concerned” by Israel’s total siege on the Gaza Strip, “which will undoubtfully cost civilian lives and constitutes collective punishment”.

WHO, MSF call for corridor

The United Nations humanitarian office has said that nearly 200,000 people or nearly a tenth of the population, have fled their homes in Gaza since the start of hostilities and is poised for shortages of water and electricity due to a blockade.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called for the creation of a humanitarian corridor to “reach people with critical medical supplies”.

“The situation is catastrophic… I don’t think anyone is safe in Gaza,” said Sarah Chateau, head of the Palestinian territories programme for Doctors Without Borders.

A similar proposal also came from the US, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday Washington was talking to Israeli officials and others about the idea of a safe passage for Gaza civilians.

“We are focused on this question, there are consultations going on,” Sullivan told reporters in a White House press briefing.

‘No place is safe in Gaza’

Sheltering from Israeli night raids on Gaza, Mazen Mohammad and his family slept on the ground floor of their apartment block, huddling together with frightened neighbours as explosions rang all around them.

The neighbourhood they woke up to the next day was ravaged beyond recognition: buildings had crumbled to the ground and debris carpeted the streets. “As soon as we saw the neighbourhood, my wife and I simultaneously asked ourselves: Is this real?,” said Mohammad, a 38-year-old father of four.

“We felt like we were in a ghost town, as if we were the only survivors,” he told AFP.

At the morgue in Gaza’s Khan Younis hospital, bodies were laid on the ground on stretchers with names written on their bellies. Medics called for relatives to pick up bodies quickly because there was no more space for the dead.

A building was hit while being used as an emergency shelter. Survivors there spoke of many dead.

“No place is safe in Gaza, as you see they hit everywhere,” said Ala Abu Tair, 35, who had sought shelter there with his family after fleeing Abassan Al-Kabira near the border.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2023