The killing of civilians trying to get food and in displacement sites in Gaza has shocked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and made special rapporteur calling for arms and trade embargo against Israel due to its continued “genocide” against Palestinians.
Guterres “is appalled by the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric was quoted as saying by Xinhua on July 3. "Multiple attacks in recent days hitting sites hosting displaced people and people trying to access food have killed and injured scores of Palestinians. The secretary-general strongly condemns the loss of civilian life."
“The secretary-general strongly condemns the loss of civilian life,” Dujarric said, adding that Guterres also reiterated his call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups. He reminded all parties that international humanitarian law must be upheld.
READ MORE: At least 41 Palestinians ‘killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza’
More than 160 nongovernmental organizations called for immediate action to end the deadly Israeli distribution scheme, including under the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, after 500 Palestinians had been killed and 4,000 were injured in less than four weeks, trying to access or distribute food, a joint statement from the NGOs showed.
The UN noted that this week, nearly 30,000 people were forced to flee on one day under new Israeli relocation orders, with no safe place to go amid inadequate supplies of shelter, food, medicine and water. Guterres was also “gravely concerned” that the “last lifelines for survival are being cut off”.
On July 3, Israeli authorities issued a new evacuation order in parts of Gaza City, affecting some 40,000 people and including a displacement site, a medical point and one of the few neighborhoods that had remained untouched by such orders since before the March ceasefire.
Since the ceasefire collapsed, over 50 such orders have been issued, now covering 78 percent of Gaza’s territory, according to the UN. “Add the Israeli-militarized zones and that percentage jumps to 85 — leaving just 15 per cent where civilians can actually stay,” Dujarric said.
At a Geneva conference of the Human Rights Council on July 3, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, called on countries to cut off all trade and financial ties with Israel, including a full arms embargo, and withdraw international support for what she termed an “economy of genocide”.
“The situation in the occupied Palestinian territory is apocalyptic,” she was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying. “Israel is responsible for one of the cruellest genocides in modern history.”
In the past 21 months, while Israel’s genocide has devastated Palestinian lives and landscapes, the Tel Aviv stock exchange soared by 213 percent, amassing $225.7 billion in market gains — including $67.8 billion in the past month alone. For some, genocide is profitable, said Albanese.
“Corporate actors are deeply entwined in the system of occupation, apartheid and genocide in the occupied Palestinian territory,” the special rapporteur said.
Forty-eight separate corporate actors, along with their parent firms, subsidiaries, franchisees, licensees and consortium partners across sectors were identified in Albanese’s report, including weapons manufacturers, technological corporations, financial institutions and construction and energy firms.
“This report shows why Israel’s genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many,” Albanese said.
Nearly 57,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since October 2023, and about 130,000 others injured, according to Gaza health authorities.
Albanese urged UN member states to impose a full arms embargo, suspend trade and investment agreements, and hold corporate entities accountable for violations of international law.
“Palestine is a mirror held up to the world’s moral and political failures,” she said. “Ending this genocide requires not only outrage but rupture, reckoning, and the courage to dismantle what enables it.”
Dina Yulianti Sulaeman, director of the Indonesia Center for Middle East Studies, told China Daily that the UN and its members should have taken “more decisive steps”.
“The world has been given too much moral rhetoric without consequences for those who blatantly violate international law,” said Sulaeman.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has scheduled to meet US President Donald Trump on July 7.
“In this context, the meeting between Trump and Netanyahu needs to be interpreted as the US continuing to provide political legitimacy to Israeli policies that have clearly caused massive death and starvation in Gaza. If the UN really cares about humanity, they must dare to use international mechanisms to pressure Israel, not just express 'concern',” said Sulaeman from Indonesia.
Albanese also warned that the International Court of Justice’s 2024 rulings and the ICC arrest warrants should have put all actors — including corporations — on notice. Despite an ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu issued last year, he traveled to Washington in February.
READ MORE: Sources: Israeli army killed 44 Palestinians across Gaza
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on July 3 also called for an end to the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, during a phone conversation with his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported that hundreds of civilians rushing to reach the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites in militarized zones have been killed or wounded.
OCHA said that since last Thursday, nine aid workers from five different organizations have been killed, bringing the number of aid workers killed to 107 so far this year and 479 since October 2023, when the Gaza war began. Among them were 326 UN staff.
Contact the writer at jan@chinadailyapac.com
