U.N. rights chief visits West Asia, decrying 'vortex of pain'

Volker Turk, on November 7, was in Egypt at the start of a five-day visit to the region, and was planning to visit the Rafah crossing to Gaza on November 8, his office said in a statement

Palestinian carries a wounded man after Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on November 07, 2023. | Photo Credit: AP

The U.N. rights chief is visiting the Middle East amid rising concerns over Israel's escalation in Gaza, his office said on November 7, a month after Hamas carried out the deadliest attack in Israel's history.

Volker Turk, on November 7, was in Egypt at the start of a five-day visit to the region, and was planning to visit the Rafah crossing to Gaza on November 8, his office said in a statement.

Mr. Turk will visit Amman on November 9, and has also sought access to Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza, it added.

"It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair," Mr. Turk said in the statement.

"Human rights violations are at the root of this escalation and human rights play a central role in finding a way out of this vortex of pain."

In pictures | One month of Israel-Hamas war

Rockets are launched by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, in Gaza, on October 7, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak on Oct. 7, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land, and sea and catching the country off-guard on a major holiday.

Palestinians wave their national flag and celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis southern on October 7, 2023.

An IDF soldier walks past a house that was shot at and destroyed in an attack by Hamas militants on this kibbutz near the border with Gaza on October 17, 2023 in Kfar Aza, Israel. The Hamas militants broke out of Gaza and rampaged through nearby Israeli communities, taking captives.

Smoke rises following Israeli strikes in Gaza on October 7, 2023. Israel began its retaliatory efforts against the Hamas.

People stand outside a mosque destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip on October 8, 2023.

A Palestinian sits on the rubble of a building destroyed in Israeli strikes, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 9, 2023.

Israeli soldiers walk through a tunnel discovered near the Israel-Gaza border on October 13, 2013.

Rockets are fired from Gaza towards Israel, on October 10, 2023.

The first flight carrying 212 Indian nationals from Israel, as part of Operation Ajay landed at Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi on October 13, 2023.

Palestinians check the place of the explosion at al-Ahli hospital, in Gaza City, on October 18, 2023. The Hamas-run Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike caused the explosion that killed hundreds at al-Ahli, but the Israeli military said it was a misfired Palestinian rocket.

Wounded Palestinians sit in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, after arriving from al-Ahli hospital following an explosion there on October 17, 2023.

A man carries the body of Palestinian girl who was killed in an Israeli strike as her relatives mourn in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

U.S. President Joe Biden is greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport, in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023.

The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks at the Rafah border crossing, Egypt on October 20, 2023.

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon, in southern Israel October 20, 2023.

Judith Tai Raanan and her daughter Natalie Shoshana Raanan, U.S. citizens who were taken as hostages by Palestinian Hamas militants, walk while holding hands with Brig.-Gen. (Ret.) Gal Hirsch, Israel's Coordinator for the Captives and Missing, after they were released by the militants on October 20, 2023.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid from Egyptian NGOs drive through the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side on October 21, 2023. These were the first aid trucks to bring urgent humanitarian relief to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave that was suffering what the U.N. chief labelled a “godawful nightmare”.

Protesters take part during a demonstration organised by the "National Collective for a just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis" in Paris on October 22, 2023.

Voting results are displayed as the United Nations General Assembly voted on a non-binding resolution calling for a "humanitarian truce" in Gaza and a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers, on October 27, 2023 at U.N. headquarters. It was the first U.N. response to the conflict.

Israeli tanks and troops move near the border with Gaza, in Sderot, Israel on October 28, 2023. On the evening of October 27, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a large scale invasion inside the Gaza Strip with the stated intent to “destroy” Hamas and overthrow it.

A man reacts as Palestinians search for casualties a day after Israeli strikes on houses in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on November 1, 2023.

Citizens with foreign passports wait to travel through the Rafah crossing,in Rafah, Gaza on November 2, 2023. For the first time since the outbreak of war, the crossing at the Gaza-Egyptian border opened to allow a small number of foreign passport holders and seriously wounded to enter Egypt.

Palestinians gather to collect water, amid water shortages in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 2, 2023.

Palestinians check the damages after a convoy of ambulances was hit, at the entrance of Shifa hospital in Gaza City on November 3, 2023.

Druze men attend the funeral of Druze Israeli Lieutenant colonel Salman Habaka in the village of Yanuh Jat, northern Israel. Habaka was killed during a ground operation in the Gaza Strip.

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His comments came a month after Hamas gunmen carried out an unprecedented attack inside Israel on October 7, which claimed 1,400 lives, according to Israeli officials.

Israel has since relentlessly bombarded Gaza and sent in ground forces that have effectively cut the territory in half, with soldiers encircling Gaza City.

Since the start of the campaign, 10,000 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 4,000 children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

With international criticism of Israel's conduct of the war mounting, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on November 6 that Gaza was becoming a "graveyard for children".

More than 1.5 million people in Gaza have fled their homes for other parts of the densely packed Palestinian territory in a desperate search for cover, with critical aid only trickling in.

Mr. Turk's visit to the region "takes place against the backdrop of the ongoing, extremely serious human rights and humanitarian crisis", his office said.

During his visit, the U.N. rights chief is due to engage with government officials, civil society actors, victims and U.N. colleagues on the human rights situation in the region, the statement said.

In Cairo on November 7, he was due to meet with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, as well as representatives of regional civil society organisations, and the head of the Arab League.