The United Nations condemned Tuesday intensifying Israeli military attacks in Gaza that it said had killed at least 57 Palestinians, including six children, in the past week.
A ceasefire agreed last October remains in place between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, but it has not halted the violence in Gaza, and efforts to secure a lasting agreement to end the war have stalled.
"Nine months after the announcement of a ceasefire, still, nowhere is safe for Palestinians in Gaza," UN rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva.
He decried that "the Israeli military has intensified its attacks in Gaza in recent days, killing and injuring dozens of Palestinians".
The Israeli attacks had killed "at least 57 Palestinians, including six children and eight women" from July 13 to 20, Kheetan said.
The Israeli army has announced in recent days that it carried out a series of strikes in the Gaza Strip targeting several members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad who it said were involved in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel or the holding of hostages after.
It also reported striking a weapons depot, an arms manufacturing site, and a rocket-launching position, saying that this infrastructure posed a threat to its troops.
Kheetan said that the strikes had targeted residential buildings, at least one tent sheltering internally displaced people, and other crowded areas, with 34 of the victims "killed far away from the Israeli-imposed yellow line".
"The killing of civilians in these attacks raises concerns of continuing violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes and other possible atrocity crimes in Gaza".
"Under international law, deliberately attacking civilians is a war crime."
