As the Israeli military resumes its strikes on Gaza and rockets are fired from southerm Gaza into Israel, aid agencies say resuming fighting will worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in the strip.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, told the BBC Newshour programme that the end of the truce was a “serious mistake”.
“It’s irresponsible given the humanitarian catastrophe that people in Gaza are in,” Albanese said.
“The population in Gaza… cannot bear any more violence, any more bombing,” she added.
Asked what she thought was the best solution moving forward, she said that the international community “should exercise true leadership in upholding international law as the only possible way out, in the interest of both the Israelis and the Palestinians.”
Albanese said that to allow the demilitarisation of Hamas and the withdrawal of the Israeli army, there needs to be an independent peace-keeping operation in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN’s Human Rights Council to follow and report on human rights situations in certain regions.
