The Norwegian rights entity stressed that the Israeli crimes in Gaza “rank amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population” in modern history.
The Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council , Jan Egeland, called for a ceasefire again on Tuesday and said that the civilian deaths in Gaza are “a stain” on Israel’s and its allies who have supported it with arms.
“Countries supporting Israel with arms must understand that these civilian deaths will be a permanent stain on their reputation. They must demand an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Gaza,” Egeland said in a statement published on the NRC’s website, without naming any countries.
“The pulverising of Gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age. Each day we see more dead children and new depths of suffering for the innocent people enduring this hell,” the NRC chief added.
The statement came almost two months since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, with the occupation forces relentlessly pummeling the north, centre and south of the besieged enclave in addition to a ground invasion that extends into the majority of Gaza.
By Tuesday, the Israeli occupation forces killed at least 16,250 Palestinians, according to the latest figures by Gaza’s health ministry.
Euro-Med reported a much higher figure on the same day of 21,022, including 8,312 children and missing Palestinians “whose chances of survival have almost completely diminished.”
The figure has remained disputed ever since Gaza’s collapsed health sector stopped keeping track of the total toll after the ground invasion of Al-Shifa Hospital on November 18 and the non-stop bombardment.
On November 2, the U.S. House of Representatives had passed a Republican bill to provide $14.3 billion in aid to Israel.
The amount is in addition to the annual $3.8 billion military aid that includes fighter jets and destructive bombs. Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign military aid..
The U.S. also provided Israel with 15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells “shortly after” the surprise Hamas attack on October 7, according to a Wall Street Journal report on December 1.
Amnesty International confirmed in a report on Tuesday that the U.S. military backed Israel with arms after reviewing fragments of the munition found under the rubble of two civilian houses in Gaza.
The report found that the Israeli occupation forces used American-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions weighing between 1,000-to-2,000 pounds, during their attacks on civilians’ houses in the south of Wadi Gaza in October.
The rights watchdog called for an investigation into the attacks as war crimes, echoing other calls by governments and NGOs on the International Criminal Court to probe Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.
“The fact that US-made munitions are being used by Israeli military in unlawful attacks with deadly consequences for civilians should be an urgent wake-up call to the Biden administration. The US-made weapons facilitated the mass killings of extended families,” Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said in the report.
Callamard called on Washington, DC to “immediately stop transferring arms to Israel that more likely than not will be used to commit or heighten risks of violations of international law.”
“To knowingly assist in violations is contrary to the obligation to ensure respect for international humanitarian law. A state that continues to supply arms being used to commit violations may share responsibility for these violations,” Callamard added.
The U.S. weapons supply to Israel also violates “its own laws and policies regarding the transfer and sale of arms” under the U.S. Conventional Arms Transfer Policy and Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance, Amnesty explained.
American officials have been vocal about support for Israel’s right to self-defence following the October 7 operation by Hamas.
Known as “Al Aqsa Flood”, the operation saw the Al-Qassam Brigades—Hamas’ armed wing—infiltrate the occupied territories through air, land and sea while returning to Gaza with at least 240 captives.
Hamas released at least 110 captives from Gaza under a Qatar and Egypt mediated week-long truce between November 24 until December 1, according to a Doha News tally.
As part of the deal, Israel released 240 Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons.
Israel resumed bombarding Gaza after the truce expired on Friday at 7:00 AM local time.
The Israeli occupation forces have killed at least 1,240 Palestinians since the truce expired, according to figures shared by Palestine’s news agency on Tuesday.
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, told a press conference in Doha on Tuesday that the Gulf state’s efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza are ongoing and its “primary goal” is to end the war.