On Tuesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, condemned the Israeli raids on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, saying that the killing of women and children in the city “is something that goes beyond war.”

On Saturday evening, Israel carried out two air strikes on two homes, one east of Rafah and the other in its centre, killing 24 people, most of them children and women, according to Palestinian sources.

Turk explained in a statement that the potential Israeli military operation in Rafah “will lead to more violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and to more terrible crimes for which those responsible will be held accountable,” according to what was published by the United Nations News website.

Turk added: "The scenes of the baby Khadija (born prematurely) being removed from her dying mother's womb, and two neighboring houses where 15 children and 5 women were killed (in Rafah), are something that goes beyond war."

The UN High Commissioner stressed that "world leaders are united on the need to protect the civilian population besieged in Rafah."

He added: "Every ten minutes a child is killed or injured (in the Gaza Strip). They are protected under the laws of war, yet they are the ones who disproportionately pay the ultimate price in this war."

The UN High Commissioner said that he was "horrified by the destruction of the Al-Nasser and Al-Shifa medical complexes, and the reported discovery of mass graves in and around these sites," calling for "independent, effective and transparent investigations into the deaths."

He added: "Given the prevailing climate of impunity, this should include international investigators."

On Monday, the Civil Defense Service in the Gaza Strip announced that the number of bodies discovered had risen to 283, in a mass grave discovered on Saturday, in the “Nasser” Medical Complex in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Strip, from which the Israeli army withdrew after widespread violations.

Turk stressed that "hospitals are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law."

He said, "The deliberate killing of civilians, detainees, and others hors de combat constitutes a war crime."

The UN High Commissioner stressed that "the untold suffering caused by the fighting, and the resulting misery, destruction, famine, disease and the risk of a broader conflict, must end definitively."

Türk renewed his call for "an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and arbitrarily detained persons, and the unrestricted flow of humanitarian aid."

Regarding developments in the occupied West Bank, he said, “Despite international condemnation of the large-scale settler attacks in the period from April 12 to 14 facilitated by the Israeli security forces, settler violence continued with the support, protection, and participation of the Israeli security forces.”

He explained that the Israeli occupation forces "caused unprecedented and brutal destruction" to the Nour Shams camp and its infrastructure in Tulkarm in the West Bank.

Over the course of three days, from Thursday to Saturday, the city of Tulkarm and the Nour Shams camp in the northern West Bank were subjected to an Israeli military operation that led to the killing of 14 Palestinians and the widespread destruction of infrastructure and homes.

In parallel with its war on Gaza, the army and Israeli settlers escalated their attacks on Palestinians and their property in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, which led to the killing of 487 Palestinians and the injury of about 4,900, according to concerned Palestinian institutions.

While the ongoing war on Gaza left more than 112,000 dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly, according to Palestinian and UN data.

Israel continues this war despite the issuance of an immediate ceasefire resolution by the Security Council, and despite its appearance before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing "genocide."