UN rapporteur: ‘No other term but genocide can be used to express Gaza situation’

United Nations (UN) Rapporteur on the right to health Tlaleng Mofokeng expressed on Friday: “When you have a group of people who have literally been exterminated, what else is there to declare it a genocide.”

Mofokeng added in a statement reported by the Turkish Anadolu Agency on the sidelines of her participation in the 56th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva: “We know that people are trying to survive, but that’s really all they can do,” adding that there is no food, safe drinking water, and safe housing.

She noted that Gazans’ psychological health has deteriorated and stated that they are suffering from severe trauma as a result of the ongoing Israeli bombing.

Mofokeng said that information about the recent status of health facilities in Gaza still comes from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other relief organisations in this field.

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“When they (hospitals) cannot get supplies and essential medicines, and when healthcare workers themselves are being killed and harassed, it makes the attacks on the right to health even more prominent,” she stated.

The rapporteur stressed that there is still no estimate regarding how long it will take to rebuild Gaza’s health infrastructure.

Mofokeng asserted the importance of a global discussion on recognising the events in Gaza as “genocide” and holding the perpetrators accountable in international courts.

Since 7 October, the Israeli occupation army has continued its aggression against the Gaza Strip, with US and European support. Its planes bomb hospitals, buildings and Palestinian civilian homes, destroying them over the heads of their residents, preventing the entry of water, food, medicine and fuel.

The occupation’s continued aggression against Gaza has killed 37,765 martyrs and wounded 86,429, in addition to the displacement of about 1.7 million people, according to UN data.

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