Mr President,
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,

There appear to be no bounds to – no words to capture – the horrors that are unfolding before our eyes in Gaza.

Since early October, over 100,000 people have been killed or wounded. Let me repeat that: about one in every 20 children, women, and men, are now dead or wounded.

At least 17,000 children are orphaned or separated from their families, while many more will carry the scars of physical and emotional trauma life-long. Today, the total number of people killed has exceeded 30,000. And tens of thousands of people are missing, many presumed buried under the rubble of their homes.

This is carnage.

The attacks on Israeli civilians on 7 and 8 October were shocking. Profoundly traumatising. And totally unjustifiable. The killing of civilians, reports of torture and sexual violence inflicted by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, and the holding of hostages since that time, are appalling and entirely wrong. And so is the brutality of the Israeli response; the unprecedented level of killing and maiming of civilians in Gaza, including UN staff and journalists; the catastrophic humanitarian crisis caused by restrictions on humanitarian aid; the displacement of at least three-quarters of the population, often multiple times; the massive destruction of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure – and in many cases, systematic demolition of entire neighbourhoods, rendering Gaza largely unliveable.

The war in Gaza must end. Clear violations of international human rights and humanitarian laws, including war crimes and possibly other crimes under international law, have been committed by all parties. It is time – well past time – for peace, investigation and accountability.

Excellencies,

Last year, I described before this Council the already dire situation across the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

In 56 years of Israeli occupation, profoundly discriminatory systems of control were imposed on Palestinians to restrict their rights, including the right to movement, with major impact on their equality, housing, health, work, education and family life. A 16 year-long blockade of the Gaza Strip kept most of its 2.2 million people effectively in captivity, and destroyed the local economy. The lives of generations of Palestinians in the West Bank were punctuated by harassment, control, arbitrariness – including arbitrary arrests and detentions – and increasing Israeli military and settler violence. Meanwhile, illegal settlements continued to grow, leading de facto to increased annexation of Palestinians’ lands. Imagine the endless humiliation and suppression endured. 

Today, this situation is incomparably worse.

Report A/HRC/55/28, which is before you, makes for very painful reading. Thousands of tonnes of munitions have been dropped by Israel on Gaza, including repeated use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects. These weapons send out a massive blast wave of high pressure that may rupture internal organs, as well as fragmentation projectiles, and heat so intense that it causes deep burns – and they have been used in densely populated residential neighbourhoods. In Egypt's El-Arish hospital, last November, I saw children whose flesh had been seared. I will never forget this. 

Under Article 1, common to the four Geneva Conventions, all States must respect and – crucially – ensure respect for international humanitarian law set out in those Conventions. This responsibility comes alive when there is a real risk that arms transferred to a party to a conflict may be used in violation of this law. Any such enabling of violations of international humanitarian law must cease at once. This is the core of due diligence.

Over the past five months of warfare, the Office has recorded many incidents that may amount to war crimes by Israeli forces, as well as indications that Israeli forces have engaged in indiscriminate or disproportionate targeting that violates international humanitarian law. 

The launching by Palestinian armed groups of indiscriminate projectiles across southern Israel, and as far as Tel Aviv, also violates international humanitarian law, as does the continued holding of hostages. I have met with some of the hostages' families, and I feel their pain.

Mr President,

Between 8 and 21 October 2023, Israel imposed a complete ban on all supply of aid, food, fuel and electricity to Gaza. Since then, Israel has continued to hinder humanitarian assistance. All people in Gaza are at imminent risk of famine. Almost all are drinking salty and contaminated water. Healthcare across the territory is barely functioning. Just imagine what this means for the wounded, and people suffering infectious disease outbreaks. In northern Gaza, where the operational space for humanitarian work is now almost zero, many are already believed to be starving. In all other parts of Gaza, humanitarian assistance has become extremely challenging – and this is not only dangerous, but also dehumanising. 

The blockade and siege imposed on Gaza amount to collective punishment, and may also amount to the use of starvation as a method of war – both of which, committed intentionally, are war crimes.

In addition, almost all the population of Gaza has been forcibly displaced, and thousands of people have been detained, many of them incommunicado, in conditions that may amount to enforced disappearance. 

Let me be absolutely clear, and issue yet another stark warning. The prospect of an Israeli ground assault on Rafah would take the nightmare being inflicted on people in Gaza into a new dimension. Over 1.5 million people are sheltering in Rafah, despite continuing bombardment, and it has become Gaza's humanitarian hub. A ground assault would incur potentially massive loss of life; additional risk of atrocity crimes; new displacement, to another unsafe location; and sign a death warrant for any hope of effective humanitarian aid. For my part, I fail to see how such an operation could be consistent with the binding provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice. I call on all States with influence to do everything within their power to avert such an outcome. 

Mr President,

In the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israeli forces’ use of airstrikes, attack helicopters, anti-tank missiles, shoulder-fired explosive projectiles and other weapons of war , has continued to increase, with lethal results, including killings of children. The report also notes a growing pattern of Israeli forces preventing paramedics from reaching Palestinians, including children, who have been injured in such operations. 

From 1 January to 6 October, last year had already seen the highest levels of violence by Israeli military personnel and settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since United Nations records began in 2005. From 7 October last year to 23 February this year, at least 401 Palestinians in the West Bank were killed, 102 of them children. The vast majority of cases that the Office has monitored raise concerns of unlawful killings, including extra-judicial killings.

In the past, accountability was very rarely served in such cases; it is imperative that it be served now.

Since 7 October, more than 7,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been arbitrarily detained. About 9,000 are currently being held as 'security prisoners', over 3,400 of them in administrative detention without charge or prospect of a trial; and at least 606 are being held incommunicado.

Mr President,

And yet we must hold on to the promise that peace is achievable in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel. For that to work, the occupation must end. Israeli leaders must accept the right of Palestinians to live in an independent state. And all Palestinian factions must accept the right of Israel to exist in peace and security. 

The goal is to achieve a safer, more peaceful future for all, and the war in Gaza is taking Palestinians and Israelis further from that goal every day. There must be an end to these hostilities – not only an immediate ceasefire, but an end to this war. All hostages must immediately and unconditionally be released, and the thousands of Palestinians arbitrarily detained by Israel must also be released.

Accountability must be served on all sides. A raft of measures to re-establish human rights, equality, accountability and justice must be adopted across the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel. I urge a positive response to the repeated requests by my Office for full access to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, to document and investigate credible allegations of human rights violations and abuses.

Keeping Palestinians and their rights walled off – "out of sight, out of mind" – has not worked in 56 years, and it can never, ever work. The core challenge of building peace is for all to see and fully grasp the humanity of the other, overcoming mindsets that have been deeply engraved by generations of harm and rage, and which conceal the truth: that people – Palestinian and Israeli people – are being cruelly harmed.

Excellencies,

Whether in Gaza or anywhere else, I urge you all to avert a new era of power politics that casts aside laws, norms and the institutions so painstakingly built to advance them. Our universal rights and fundamental humanity depend on reversing any such trajectory.

Thank you, Mr President.