UN rights chief urges governments to 'wake up' to 'horrifying' suffering in Gaza

The UN human rights chief said Israel's warfare in Gaza is inflicting “horrifying, unconscionable suffering" on Palestinians and urged government leaders on Monday to “wake up” and exert pressure to bring an end to the conflict. “The facts speak for themselves,” said Volker Türk. “Everyone in government needs to wake up to what is happening in Gaza. All those with influence must exert maximum pressure on Israel and Hamas, to put an end to this unbearable suffering.” Turk made the comments at the opening of the latest Human Rights Council session in a broad address that also raised concerns about escalating conflict between Iran and Israel, the fallout from US tariffs, and China's human rights record — alongside wars and conflict in places like Sudan and Ukraine. As the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights — who has regularly spoken out about bloodshed in Gaza and called for the release of Israeli hostages held by armed Palestinian militants — Turk used some of his most forceful words yet to highlight the Mideast violence.

“Israel's means and methods of warfare are inflicting horrifying, unconscionable suffering on Palestinians in Gaza,” he told the 47-member-country body, which Israeli authorities have regularly accused of anti-Israel bias. The Trump administration has kept the United States, Israel's top ally, out of the council proceedings. Israel's military campaign since the deadly October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks in Israel has killed over 55,300 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. It says that women and children make up most of the dead, but it does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The Israeli diplomatic mission in Geneva responded by accusing Turk and his office of been “relentless in making irresponsible and uneducated statements regarding Israel's conduct of hostilities — including reliance on information propagated by terrorist organisations.” It called on Turk to "condemn Hamas's declared strategy to maximize harm to the population in Gaza.” In Brussels, medical aid charity Doctors Without Borders appealed to European Union leaders to use what leverage they have over Israel to end the siege of Gaza.

Secretary-General Christopher Lockyear described Gaza as a “hell on earth,” and said that almost two years of relentless bombardment has turned “this narrow strip of land into a graveyard of shattered hospitals, mass graves and destroyed neighbourhoods.”

Aid deliveries organised by the UN were cut off in mid-March, and violence has accompanied distributions of food from the recently created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has US and Israeli backing. Beyond the suffering of inflicted on in Gaza, Doctors Without Borders said its international staffers are living often on one meal a day, and some have been admitted to their own facilities for treatment. The EU is the world's biggest donor of aid to the Palestinians but has little real leverage over Israel. The bloc's 27 member states are divided in their approach to the conflict, although concern over the plight of Gazans has grown as the siege has dragged on. In his speech, Turk also bemoaned an increase in civilian casualties in Ukraine, nearly three and a half years after Russia's full-scale invasion. He denounced executions without a fair trial and “wide-scale sexual violence, including against children" in Sudan.

Without mentioning US President Donald Trump by name, Turk likened the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration in April to “a high-stakes poker game, with the global economy as the bank.” “But the shockwaves of a trade war will hit least developed countries with the force of a tsunami,” he said, warning of a potentially “devastating” impact on exporters in Asia, and the prospect of higher costs for food, healthcare and education in places. Turk expressed concerns about US deportations of non-nationals, including to third countries, and called on authorities to respect the right to peaceful assembly. The council session, which has been shortened by two and a half days because of funding issues at the UN, is set to run through July 9. The Geneva-based council is the UN's top human rights body.