Geneva, September 10 (RHC)--UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has called for an immediate end to the Israeli campaign of genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip.

“Ending that war and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority,” Turk said in a speech at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.  He pointed out that nearly 1.9 million people have been forcibly displaced across the Gaza Strip.

"While the actual number is likely higher, almost 10,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons or ad hoc military facilities, many arbitrarily, with over 50 people having died due to inhumane conditions and ill-treatment."  Israel has killed nearly 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the UN rights chief urged the international community to act on Israel’s “blatant disregard” for International Law in the occupied Palestinian territories.  He cited an opinion released by the UN top court at The Hague in July that called Israel’s occupation illegal and said this situation must be “comprehensively addressed.”

“States must not -- and cannot -- accept blatant disregard for international law, including binding decisions of the Security Council and orders of the International Court of Justice, neither in this nor any other situation.”

Turk warned that "deadly and destructive" operations in the West Bank are at a scale "not witnessed in the last two decades," and they are "worsening a calamitous situation" which is already aggravated by settler violence.

Israeli forces recently launched incursions into different areas including two refugee camps in the northern West Bank and a village in the south of Nablus. They also stormed several homes and abducted a young man in Qalandiya.  They shot another young man in a separate incident in a town east of Bethlehem.