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The United Nations human rights office says Israeli airstrikes on Gaza "may have repeatedly violated fundamental principles of the laws of war."
A report released Wednesday examined six airstrikes conducted by the Israel Defense Forces between October and December 2023 during the opening weeks of the war in Gaza. More than 200 people were confirmed by the human rights office to have been killed in the airstrikes, whose targets included residential buildings, a school, a market and refugee camps.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said it appeared Israel made no attempt to "effectively distinguish" between Palestinian civilians and Hamas fighters in its bombing campaign of Gaza.
"Civilian lives and infrastructure are protected" under international human rights law, Türk said. "This law lays out the very clear obligations of parties to armed conflicts that make protection of civilians a priority."
The report said the six attacks involved the suspected use of heavy bombs, those weighing between 113 kilograms and 907 kilograms.
The report also says continued missile attacks toward Israel by Palestinian armed groups is "inconsistent with their obligations under international humanitarian law."
Health authorities in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip say more than 37,266 people have been killed and 85,102 have been injured since the start of the Israeli ground and aerial campaign that began soon after the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, Israeli authorities say.
Israeli operations in Gaza continued Wednesday as tanks advanced into the western part of Rafah, killing eight people, Reuters reported, citing residents and Palestinian medics. Starting after midnight, the tanks moved into five neighborhoods, residents said.
Twelve Palestinians also were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a crowd waiting for aid trucks to arrive in the south Gaza Strip, Reuters reported, citing medical sources. The Israeli military is looking into the report, according to Reuters.
Up north in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood, residents reported fighting between Israeli tanks and warplanes and Hamas-led fighters.
In the Gaza City suburb of Sheikh Radwan, four Palestinians, including a child, were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a house, medics said.
The Israeli military said later Wednesday that Palestinian gunmen fired rockets in southern Gaza at the Kerem Shalom crossing, a key transit point for aid into Gaza.
An Israeli commander said Tuesday their army was planning to battle Hamas fighters in the Shaboura and Tel al-Sultan neighborhoods, located in central and western Rafah, respectively.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.