The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein on Friday warned that the violence in Gaza has reached a peak in the past week, with 60 people had been killed by the Israeli forces in just one day of May 14, a highest figure of one-day death toll in Gaza since the 2014 hostilities.
He told a UN Human Rights Council Special Session that the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory continues to deteriorate, saying that nobody has been made safer by the "horrific events" of the past week in Gaza.
According to the UN rights chief, on May 14 this week a total of 43 Palestinian demonstrators were killed by Israeli forces, and Israeli forces also killed a further 17 Palestinians outside the context of the five demonstration hot spots.
Another 1,360 demonstrators were injured with live ammunition that day.
May 14 was the day when the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem officially opened despite international criticism.
According to the UN rights chief, on that day 43 demonstrators were killed by Israeli forces, and Israeli forces also killed a further 17 Palestinians outside the context of the five demonstration hot spots.
Another 1,360 demonstrators were injured with live ammunition that day.
"These people, many of whom were completely unarmed, were shot in the back, in the chest, in the head and limbs with live ammunition, as well as rubber-coated steel bullets and tear-gas canisters," Zeid told the UN Human Rights Council Special Session on the deteriorating human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, which opened on Friday morning.
Zeid also told the Special Session that since the protests began on March 30, 87 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli security forces in the context of the demonstrations, including 12 children.
What's more, 29 others, including three children, were killed in other circumstances, and over 12,000 people have been injured, more than 3,500 of them by live ammunition.
"Palestinians have exactly the same human rights as Israelis do. They have the same rights to live safely in their homes, in freedom, with adequate and essential services and opportunities," Zeid noted.
"All of the 1.9 million people who live in Gaza have been penned in behind fences and have suffered progressively more restrictions and greater poverty. After 11 years of blockade by Israel they have little hope of employment, and their infrastructure is crumbling," he warned.
The UN rights chief called for an investigation that is international, independent and impartial, in the hope the truth regarding these matters will lead to justice.
"The occupation must end, so the people of Palestine can be liberated, and the people of Israel liberated from it," he concluded.
