THE United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said today that he feared a large-scale Israeli ground military operation in Gaza would lead to “thousands of deaths”, mostly among civilians.

“Given the way military operations have been conducted so far, in the context of a 56-year occupation, I sound the alarm about the potentially disastrous consequences of large-scale ground operations in Gauze and for the possibility of causing thousands of deaths” mainly among “civilians”, Volker Turk said in a statement released in Geneva.

“When hostilities end, those who have survived will find themselves facing the ruins of their homes and the graves of their family members,” underlined Turkwhich believes that “injuring and traumatizing hundreds of thousands of people helps no one”.

“The humanitarian consequences in the field of human rights will be devastating and continuous,” he added, calling on the parties to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law.

“Continued violence is not the solution,” he said Volker Turkwhich calls on “all sides as well as third states, especially those with influence on the sides of the conflict, to do everything in their power to de-escalate the conflict and work so that the Israelis and the Palestinians to be able to fully benefit from human rights and live side by side in peace”.

Like his colleagues from other UN agencies, such as the World Health Organization and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Turk expressed concern about the fate of his team in the field, which he has not heard from since the outage. yesterday, Friday, of the internet and telephone communications.

“There is no safe place for anyone in Gaza and there is no way for anyone to get out of there. I am very concerned for my colleagues, as well as for all the civilians in Gaza,” the official said. UN.