UN rights chief deplores ‘grim milestone’ of 40,000 people killed in Gaza

GENEVA: The UN human rights chief Thursday (Aug 15) deplored the “grim milestone” of 40,000 Palestinians reported killed in Israel’s 10-month assault on Gaza, accusing the country’s military of breaking the “rules of war”.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk blamed Israel for the soaring death toll in the territory, where it launched a fierce assault in response to unprecedented attacks by Hamas militants in October.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Thursday that the death toll from the conflict had reached at least 40,005 people, with another 92,401 wounded. The ministry does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
“Today marks a grim milestone for the world. The people of Gaza are now grieving 40,000 Palestinian lives lost, according to Gaza’s health ministry,” Turk said in a statement.
“Most of the dead are women and children. This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war,” he added.
“The scale of the Israeli military’s destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and places of worship is deeply shocking.”