NEW YORK, October 7, 2026 (WAFA) – Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that the lack of accountability for Israel over its ongoing attacks in the Gaza Strip, despite the ceasefire, is one of the main factors fueling the attacks and the conflict.

In response to journalists’ questions about the human rights situation and violations in the besieged Gaza Strip amid ongoing Israeli hostilities against the Strip since October 2023, Shamdasani said that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank has reached catastrophic levels.

She said that more than 70,000 people have been killed since October 2023, including more than 1,400 since the announcement of the ceasefire in October last year.

She said that the humanitarian situation is extremely dire, noting that people are dying of starvation, war crimes and potential crimes against humanity are being committed, and more and more land is being confiscated in the West Bank.

She added that more Palestinians are being killed daily alongside the ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees in detention centers, emphasizing that a chronic lack of accountability across every violation continues to feed the conflict.

She noted that there had been a “chronic absence” of accountability for Israel over its violations in Palestine even before October 2023, stressing that the situation has worsened since then.

The UN spokesperson stressed that the crisis has been exacerbated by preventing humanitarian aid from entering and increasing cases of people dying of starvation, alongside the escalation of land seizures and violations in the West Bank.

Shamdasani stressed the need to stop supplying Israel with arms and diplomatic and financial support that contributes to fueling the war, emphasizing that this constitutes an international legal obligation on all Member States.

T.R.