Gaza genocide: 5% of Gaza population killed or injured as of April 12

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: United Nations Development Program
2 May 2024 20:39
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The UNDP report on Gaza's socioeconomic situation highlights severe human losses and economic devastation, with at least 5% of the population became casualties.

Palestinians walk through the destruction in the wake of an Israeli air and ground attack in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, April 8, 2024 (AP)

A report by the United Nations Development Program on the socioeconomic situation in the Gaza Strip showed that due to the ongoing Israeli genocidal war, at least 5% of the population has either been killed or injured as of mid-April.

"By 12 April 2024, at least 5 percent of the population in Gaza had been killed, severely injured or injured," the report noted.

Additionally, it was stressed that "According to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, the Palestinian economy lost an estimated 8.7 percent of its real gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023 and is estimated to lose 25.8 percent in 2024."

Moreover, it was emphasized that approximately 7,000 individuals remain unaccounted for in Gaza.

UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner, underscored that "Unprecedented levels of human losses, capital destruction, and the steep rise in poverty in such a short period of time will precipitate a serious development crisis that jeopardizes the future of generations to come."

Significantly it was also reported that the recent assessment by UNDP-ESCWA supplements findings from the Joint Interim Damage Assessment by the World Bank and the United Nations. This assessment revealed that as of January 2024, direct damages to Gaza's infrastructure totaled around US$18.5 billion, equivalent to 97 percent of the total GDP of the State of Palestine in 2022.

'Israel' potentially using bombs that evaporate, melt bodies: Euro-Med

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor disclosed on Tuesday that it had received testimonies indicating that bodies of Palestinians killed by the Israeli occupation in Gaza seemed to have "evaporated or melted," suggesting the use of prohibited thermal weapons in residential areas.

The Geneva-based rights group called for an international investigation into the matter, urging that an "international committee of experts must be established to look into the weapons Israel has been using as part of its genocide in the Gaza Strip .. including the potential use of bombs that produce such high heat that victims’ bodies evaporate."

According to the report, the genocidal war on Gaza, which has resulted in the martyrdom of over 34,000 Palestinians at the least, raises concerns "about the potential use of 'thermal weapons', or what are known as 'vacuum bombs'," - well-known in military circles for their efficacy in demolishing caves and underground tunnel complexes.

"A number of the victims killed in these horrifying Israeli raids on residential buildings have vanished and may have turned to ashes, raising questions about the type of bombs used in the attacks," Euro-Med said, also adding that thousands of martyrs "remain missing, either because it was impossible to recover them from under the debris in light of insufficient equipment and technical know-how, or because their bodies were either hidden by the Israeli army or no longer exist."

The group pointed out that the Gaza Civil Defense Service has issued several statements regarding the victims' bodies turning into ashes this month. These statements have detailed the discovery of a mass grave at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, located in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

“An international investigation must be launched into Israel’s probable use of internationally banned weapons, including thermobaric bombs,” the human rights monitor said.

It further emphasizes that the use of incendiary weapons against civilians in densely populated areas is prohibited by the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and international humanitarian law.

“The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court also classifies the use of thermal bombs as a war crime.”

"The findings of investigations by certain credible international organizations and bodies into Israel’s ongoing genocide, along with the startling statistics about the number of people killed and the extent of the destruction in the Gaza Strip, support the possibility that Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity," the report concluded.