As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens, at least 48 Palestinians were killed overnight in a series of Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza, local hospital officials said. The strikes came just hours before a harrowing address to the UN Security Council by Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher, who accused Israel of committing war crimes and urged immediate international action to prevent genocide.
The Indonesian Hospital in Gaza reported that 22 children and 15 women were among the dead after multiple homes were struck in the densely populated Jabalia town and refugee camp. Graphic footage shared online appeared to show a dozen bodies on the hospital floor. The Israeli military said it was โlooking into the reports,โ adding that residents in Jabalia and surrounding areas had been warned to evacuate following a rocket barrage from Palestinian fighters. However, as in many previous instances, Israel has provided no evidence to support this claim. The Israeli government frequently cites security justifications for its strikes but rarely presents verifiable proof, and many of its assertionsโparticularly regarding attacks on civilian areasโhave later been discredited or contradicted by independent investigations and human rights organizations.
On Tuesday, a massive Israeli assault on the compound of the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Yunis reportedly killed at least 28 people. The Israeli military claimed the target was Mohammed Sinwar, believed to be Hamasโs new leader in Gaza, and asserted that the hospital was being used as a command-and-control center. Local officials, however, condemned the strike as yet another attack on a protected civilian facility.
Under international humanitarian law, hospitals are explicitly protected from attack, even during armed conflict. Only under extremely limited and specific circumstancesโsuch as when a hospital is being used outside its humanitarian function to commit acts harmful to the enemyโcan this protection be suspended, and even then, clear warning must be given. No such evidence or warning was provided by Israel. Repeated strikes on hospitals constitute a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and may amount to war crimes.
Journalist Ibrahim al Khalili reports from the site of the israeli massacre in Jabalia, where 60+ innocent civilians, including children were killed pic.twitter.com/cZh2aED5E5
— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) May 14, 2025
“Death Has a Sound and a Smell” โ Fletcher’s Harrowing Testimony
Addressing the Security Council, Fletcher did not mince words. โIsrael is deliberately and unashamedly imposing inhumane conditions on civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory,โ he declared. โFor more than 10 weeks, nothing has entered Gazaโno food, medicine, water, or tents.โ
He described the humanitarian catastrophe in visceral detail: โDeath on this scale has a sound and a smell that does not leave you. As one hospital worker described it to me: children scream as we peel burnt fabric from their skin.โ The burns, he said, are caused by the relentless, indiscriminate airstrikesโoften carried out with U.S.-supplied weaponry.
Fletcher revealed that the UN and its partners currently have tens of thousands of tons of humanitarian suppliesโincluding food, water, and medicineโready to be delivered. โWe have a plan. We have shown we can deliver, with tens of thousands of trucks reaching civilians during the ceasefire. We have life-saving supplies ready now at the borders,โ he said. โWe can save hundreds of thousands of survivors. But Israel denies us access.โ
Blockade, UNRWA Ban, and Impunity: A Systematic Attack on Civilian Survival
Israel has compounded the crisis by banning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)โthe main body responsible for delivering humanitarian assistance to Palestiniansโfrom operating in Gaza. The move has been widely condemned as a violation of international humanitarian law. Without UNRWA, there is no logistical structure capable of meeting the basic needs of Gazaโs 2.1 million residents.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have targeted critical infrastructure required for survival, including water systems, sewage plants, bakeries, hospitals, and solar power arrays. Fletcher warned that these attacks, in combination with the blockade, amount to the โsystematic dismantling of Palestinian life and that which sustains it.โ
Most recently, Israel attacked a humanitarian aid ship in international waters, disabling a vessel carrying food and medicine destined for Gazaโs children and displaced families. Maritime law experts have condemned the attack, but no action has been taken against Israel.
Despite these clear breaches, Israel has yet to face formal sanctions or indictmentโneither from its Western allies nor the Arab world. Fletcher emphasized the grave danger of this silence: โThe degradation of international law is corrosive and infectious. It is undermining decades of progress on rules to protect civilians from inhumanity and the violent and lawless among us who act with impunity.โ
Western Condemnation Escalates
As the death toll in Gaza surpasses 52,900, condemnation is mounting across Western capitals. In the UK, Foreign Secretary David Lammy is under growing scrutiny after a report revealed that the UK supplied parts for F-35 jets used in attacks on hospitals, despite his claims that British arms sales were defensive. Legal experts now warn Lammy could face war crimes charges for the UKโs role in Gaza’s devastation. (Great Reporter)
In the EU, former foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has accused Israel of genocide and called its military campaign โthe largest ethnic cleansing operation since World War II.โ He noted that โthree times more explosive power has been dropped on Gaza than was used on Hiroshima.โ (Great Reporter)
In the U.S., lawmakers including Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have condemned the Trump administrationโs continued arms transfers to Israel, describing it as complicity in what they call genocide. Behind closed doors, multiple officials across Western governments now fear future prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC) or the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for complicity or failure to prevent atrocities.
A Moment of Reckoning
Fletcher invoked the failures of the international community in Rwanda, Sri Lanka, and Myanmarโwhere inaction enabled genocideโand warned the Council that history is repeating itself in Gaza. โWhat more evidence do you need now?โ he asked. โWill you act decisively to prevent genocide and ensure respect for international humanitarian lawโor will you say instead that we did all we could?โ
He concluded with a powerful and chilling warning: โTo the Israeli authoritiesโstop killing and injuring civilians. Lift this brutal blockade. Let humanitarians save lives. To Hamasโrelease all hostages unconditionally. And to this Councilโdemand this ends. Stop arming it. Insist on accountability.โ
โFor those who will not survive what we fear is coming in plain sight,โ Fletcher said, โit will be no consolation to know that future generations will hold us to account. But they will. And if we have not seriously done all we couldโthen we should fear that judgment.โ
