(Bloomberg) -- The top United Nations human rights official said Israel is committing what may amount to crimes against humanity in the northern Gaza Strip, while Jordan’s top diplomat called the Israeli actions there “ethnic cleansing.”
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said Israel’s military assault on northern Gaza, where the Israel Defense Force is conducting a siege on the Kamal Adwan Hospital, risks “emptying the area of all Palestinians” and is “effectively subjecting an entire population” to bombing and potential starvation.
“Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day,” Turk said in a statement. “We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity.”
Earlier in the day, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said “nothing justifies continuation of the wars” in Gaza and also in Lebanon, where Israel has carried out air strikes and a ground invasion in pursuit of Hezbollah militants who have been firing rockets into Israel for the past year.
“We look at northern Gaza now where we do see ethnic cleansing taking place, and that has got to stop,” Safadi said alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken as the two met in London. “It’s getting worse, unfortunately, every time we meet — not for lack of us trying, but because we do have an Israeli government that is not listening to anybody.”
Earlier: Blinken and Netanyahu Agree Sinwar’s Death Opens Options
Israel’s embassy in Washington and its mission to the UN in New York didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
Israeli leaders have rejected accusations that they’re committing genocide or ethnic cleansing in Gaza. They point out that 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage in the Hamas assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Safadi, who has used the term ethnic cleansing for Israeli activities in Gaza before, made his comments as he met with Blinken at the tail-end of the top US diplomat’s 11th tour of the Middle East since last October.
Blinken visited Israel and other Middle Eastern countries over the last few days in a fresh attempt to bring an end to the Gaza war after Israel killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week.
In Doha on Thursday, Blinken said negotiators would meet in the coming days with the US now looking at “different options” to conclude a deal that would end the Gaza war and free dozens of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas.
“This is a moment of importance and urgency that we’re working to seize,” Blinken said as he met with Safadi.
Yet although Netanyahu agreed with Blinken earlier this week that Sinwar’s death opens new possibilities for an accord, Israel has continued to pursue Hamas militants in Gaza and pressed ahead with a new war against Hezbollah militants that is destabilizing Lebanon.
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