Hamas also took 239 people hostage, among them elderly people and young children, according to authorities.
Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza has killed more than 11,500 people, mainly civilians and including thousands of children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
ISRAEL REFUSES ACCESS
Turk decried the “conflagration of violence (that) has been unleashed”.
He said he had spoken to people crossing out of Gaza during a visit to the Egyptian border, and “rarely have I heard such disturbing testimony about the catastrophic harm that ordinary people have endured”.
He was unable to access Israel or the Palestinian territories, but stressed on Thursday the urgent need for his department to go there, “to ensure full and independent monitoring and documentation, and to coordinate protection work”.
He told reporters he had “asked Israel to give me access both to Israel, but also to the occupied Palestinian territory. I have not yet received a response”, he said.
The Israeli mission to the UN in Geneva later dismissed his request to visit Israel, telling AFP it “did not see any added benefit of the high commissioner’s visit at this time”.
During his visit to the region last week, the Israeli mission said Turk had “made it clear that his mind had already been made up, and therefore dialogue with (his office) would contribute little.”
WEST BANK WARNING
During Thursday’s briefing, Turk voiced concern about the “intensification of violence and severe discrimination against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem”.
Source: CNA
