Six European nations reject 'any demographic or territorial change' in Gaza
GENEVA
Six European countries said Wednesday that they "firmly reject any demographic or territorial change in Gaza" after Israel announced plans to expand its military offensive in the Palestinian territory.
Israel's plan "would mark a new and dangerous escalation" in the war, the foreign ministers of Spain, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway and Slovenia said in a joint statement.
The U.N. rights chief voiced deepened concerns Wednesday that Israel's plans to expand its offensive in Gaza aim to create conditions threatening Palestinians' "continued existence" in the territory.
Israel's military has called up tens of thousands of reservists for an expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip, which an official said would entail the "conquest" of the Palestinian territory.
"Israel's reported plans to forcibly transfer Gaza's population to a small area in the south of the Strip and threats by Israeli officials to deport Palestinians outside of Gaza further aggravate concerns that Israel's actions are aimed at inflicting on Palestinians conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence in Gaza as a group," Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.
"There is no reason to believe that doubling down on military strategies, which, for a year and eight months, have not led to a durable resolution, including the release of all hostages, will now succeed," he said.
"Instead, expanding the offensive on Gaza will almost certainly cause further mass displacement, more deaths and injuries of innocent civilians, and the destruction of Gaza's little remaining infrastructure."
Nearly all of the Palestinian territory's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during the war, sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
A more than two-month Israeli blockade on all aid into Gaza has worsened the humanitarian crisis.
Turk warned that stepping up the Israeli offensive "would only compound the misery and suffering inflicted by the complete blockade on the entry of basic goods for almost nine weeks now".
"Gaza's residents have already been deprived of all lifesaving necessities, particularly food, with relentless Israeli attacks on community kitchens and those trying to maintain a minimum of law and order," he said.
"Any use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of war constitutes a war crime," Turk said, adding that "the only lasting solution to this crisis lies through full compliance with international law".
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 2,507 people had been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in mid-March, bringing the overall death toll from the war to 52,615.
Gaza war enters 20th month
Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 59 people Wednesday , as Israel prepares to ramp up its campaign against Hamas in a devastating war now entering its 20th month.
The strikes included one attack on May 6 night on a school sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians, which killed 27 people, officials from the Al-Aqsa Hospital said, including nine women and three children.
It was the fifth time since the war began that the school in central Gaza has been struck.
On May 5, Israel announced an expanded military campaign, which an Israeli official said would entail the "conquest" of the Palestinian territory.
A day after, Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said this meant that the Gaza Strip would be "entirely destroyed.”
Türk argued that the current situation worldwide underlined the need to reaffirm the principles of international cooperation. The U.N. Security Council "is not functioning well" to address "the big crisis of our time", he added.
Families demand new intel on hostages
Meanwhile, Israel faced international pressure from the families of the hostages in Gaza after U.S. President Donald Trump said only 21 hostages remained alive, contradicting Israel’s official estimate that 24 remain living.
However, Israel's hostage coordinator said the number of living captives remained unchanged,
Hamas is currently holding 59 hostages. 24 of them are on the list of living hostages. 35 of them are on the list of hostages whose deaths have been officially confirmed, Hostages and Missing Persons Coordinator Gal Hirsch wrote on X.
“Every day is another message, different numbers of living and dead and you don’t know what’s going on with your son. It messes with your head,” Danny Miran, the father of hostage Omri Miran, told the Kan public broadcaster.
The parents describe an “unbearable” frustration at the contradicting tallies.
