{"id":126177,"date":"2026-05-19T11:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T06:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=126177"},"modified":"2026-05-19T11:15:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T06:15:00","slug":"un-agency-chief-urges-israel-to-prevent-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/","title":{"rendered":"UN agency chief urges Israel to prevent \u2018genocide\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GENEVA(National Times)-  The chief of United Nations rights agency demanded on Monday that Israel take measures to prevent acts of \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza, and decried indications of \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d in the Palestinian territory and in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1990525\">occupied West Bank.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a fresh report, the UN rights office said Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza since the start of the conflict in October 2023 involved \u201cgross violations\u201d of international law, amounting in many cases to \u201cwar crimes and other atrocity crimes\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Volker Turk, the chief of UN Human Rights Commission, called in the report on Israel to ensure compliance with a 2024 International Court of Justice order that it take measures to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Israel, he said, should ensure \u201cwith immediate effect that its military does not engage in acts of genocide, (and take) all measures to prevent and punish incitement to commit genocide\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2018Unlawful killings\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Monday\u2019s report, which covered the period from Oct 7, 2023, when Hamas\u2019s unprecedented raid inside Israel sparked the Gaza conflict, up to May 2025, also condemned \u201cserious violations\u201d including some amounting to war crimes, by Palestinian armed groups during the initial attack and after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Monday\u2019s report highlighted the abuse suffered by the prisoners seized by the Palestinian armed groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMost hostages who died in Gaza died while held in secret detention, either killed by their captors or impact of the conflict occurring around them,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most of the focus however was on Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza, where its retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 72,000 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hundreds of thousands of people are still living in tents and conditions remain dire despite a ceasefire that took effect in October last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe ceasefire diminished the imme\u00adnse scale of violence up to that point, and opened some modest humanitarian space,\u201d Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN rights office in the occupied Palestinian territories, told reporters in Geneva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut killings and the destruction of infrastructure have continued on an almost daily basis, and the overall humanitarian situation remains dire,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A large proportion of the killings since the start of the war \u201cappear unlawful\u201d, the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It also highlighted how Israel had \u201cdirected attacks on civilian or protected objects, including healthcare and medical facilities and attacks on civilians, including journalists, civil defenders, health workers, humanitarian actors and police in a routine and repeated fashion\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza had rendered living conditions in much of the territory \u201cincompatible with Palestinians\u2019 continued existence as a group\u201d, it warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report also looked at the situation in the West Bank, where violence has spiralled since the start of the war in Gaza, pointing out that \u201cthe use of unnecessary and disproportionate force (there had) led to hundreds of unlawful killings\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GENEVA(National Times)- The chief of United Nations rights agency demanded on Monday that Israel take measures to prevent acts of \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza, and decried indications of \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d in the Palestinian territory and in the\u00a0occupied West Bank. In a fresh report, the UN rights office said Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza since the start of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UN agency chief urges Israel to prevent \u2018genocide\u2019 - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UN agency chief urges Israel to prevent \u2018genocide\u2019 - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"GENEVA(National Times)- The chief of United Nations rights agency demanded on Monday that Israel take measures to prevent acts of \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza, and decried indications of \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d in the Palestinian territory and in the\u00a0occupied West Bank. In a fresh report, the UN rights office said Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza since the start of [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-19T06:15:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-45-4.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/\",\"name\":\"UN agency chief urges Israel to prevent \u2018genocide\u2019 - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-45-4.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-19T06:15:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-45-4.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-45-4.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UN agency chief urges Israel to prevent \u2018genocide\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UN agency chief urges Israel to prevent \u2018genocide\u2019 - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UN agency chief urges Israel to prevent \u2018genocide\u2019 - Nation","og_description":"GENEVA(National Times)- The chief of United Nations rights agency demanded on Monday that Israel take measures to prevent acts of \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza, and decried indications of \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d in the Palestinian territory and in the\u00a0occupied West Bank. In a fresh report, the UN rights office said Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza since the start of [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/","og_site_name":"Nation","article_published_time":"2026-05-19T06:15:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":670,"height":370,"url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-45-4.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"humza Jahangir","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"humza Jahangir","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/","url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/","name":"UN agency chief urges Israel to prevent \u2018genocide\u2019 - Nation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-45-4.png","datePublished":"2026-05-19T06:15:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-45-4.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-45-4.png","width":670,"height":370},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126177\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UN agency chief urges Israel to prevent \u2018genocide\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website","url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/","name":"Nation","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16","name":"humza Jahangir","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"humza Jahangir"},"url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126179,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126177\/revisions\/126179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}