GAZA WAR UPDATES.

Defence affairs

UN official condemns killings of Palestinians near aid sites

Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has voiced deep concern over the killing of more than 100 Palestinians near US-backed aid sites in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.

“Can you imagine someone who is so desperate for food that they are making this trek over a long distance, and the fear that they must have – that they could even be shot or that they may even come back with no food?” Laurence told Al Jazeera.

“They’re at the risk of starvation. As the high commissioner [Volker Turk] says, it’s unconscionable.”

Laurence said attacks directed against civilians “constitute a grave breach of international law”.

“That is a war crime,” he said, adding that wilfully impeding access to food or other life-sustaining supplies for civilians “may also constitute a war crime”.

Israeli attacks kill three in Deir el-Balah, four near Khan Younis

Medical sources at Nasser Hospital told Al Jazeera Arabic that an Israeli drone has killed at least four Palestinians in the Joura area near Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

A separate Israeli attack in central Gaza killed three Palestinians and injured several others in Deir el-Balah.