GENEVA: Countries are at a moral crossroads over the conflict in Gaza, UN experts warned Wednesday, urging action to halt the violence and avoid “the annihilation of the Palestinian population” in the territory.
A two-month ceasefire in the war collapsed in March, with Israel resuming intense strikes and calling up tens of thousands of reservists for an expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip.
“The decision is stark: remain passive and witness the slaughter of innocents or take part in crafting a just resolution,” dozens of United Nations-appointed independent experts said in a statement, urging the world to avert the “moral abyss we are descending into.”
An Israeli official said the expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip would entail the “conquest” of the Palestinian territory.
The experts, who are mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations, said Israel’s actions in Gaza “follow alarming, documented patterns of genocidal conduct.”

While states debate terminology — is it or is it not genocide? — Israel continues its relentless destruction of life in Gaza

Experts mandated by the UN Human Rights Council

Israel flatly rejects such charges.
The experts, including Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said that “while states debate terminology — is it or is it not genocide? — Israel continues its relentless destruction of life in Gaza.”
“No one is spared — not the children, persons with disabilities, nursing mothers, journalists, health professionals, aid workers, or hostages,” the experts said.
They highlighted the devastating impact of Israel’s blockade on Gaza.
“Food and water have been cut off for months, inducing starvation, dehydration, and disease, which will result in more deaths becoming the daily reality for many,” the statement read.
Israel’s statements about the conflict, they said, “showcase a clear intent to wield starvation as a weapon of war.”
The experts highlighted the responsibility of other countries to end the bloodshed, saying that “the world is watching.”
Countries continuing to support Israel, especially militarily but also politically, they said, risk “complicity in genocide and other serious international crimes.”

SANAA: Yemen’s Houthi militants will continue targeting Israeli ships in the Red Sea, an official told AFP on Wednesday, despite a ceasefire that ended weeks of intense US strikes on the Iran-backed group.
A day after the Houthis agreed to stop firing on ships plying the key trade route off their shores, a senior official told AFP that Israel was excluded from the deal.
“The waterways are safe for all international ships except Israeli ones,” Abdulmalik Alejri, a member of the Houthi political bureau, told AFP.
“Israel is not part of the agreement, it only includes American and other ships,” he said.
The Houthis, who have controlled large swathes of Yemen for more than a decade, began firing on Israel-linked shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in November 2023, weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
They broadened their campaign to target ships tied to the United States and Britain after military strikes by the two countries began in January 2024.
Alejri said the Houthis would now “only” attack Israeli ships. In the past, vessels visiting Israel, or those with tenuous Israeli links, were in the militants’ sights.
The US-Houthi deal was announced after deadly Israeli strikes on Tuesday put Sanaa airport out of action in revenge for a Houthi missile strike on Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.
Sanaa airport director Khaled alShaief told the militants’ Al-Masirah television Wednesday the Israeli attack had destroyed terminal buildings and caused $500 million in damage.
Oman said it had facilitated an agreement between Washington and the militants that “neither side will target the other... ensuring freedom of navigation.”
US President Donald Trump, who will visit Gulf countries next week, trumpeted the deal, saying the Houthis had “capitulated.”
“They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that’s... the purpose of what we were doing,” he said during a White House press appearance.
The ceasefire followed weeks of stepped-up US strikes aimed at deterring Houthi attacks on shipping. The US attacks left 300 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Houthi figures.
The Pentagon said last week that US strikes had hit more than 1,000 targets in Yemen since mid-March in an operation that has been dubbed “Rough Rider.”
Alejri said recent US-Iran talks in Muscat “provided an opportunity” for indirect contacts between Sanaa and Washington, leading to the ceasefire.
“America was the one who started the aggression against us, and at its beginning, we did not resume our operations on Israel,” he added.
“We did not target any American ships or warships until they targeted us.”
Scores of Houthi missile and drone attacks have drastically reduced cargo volumes on the Red Sea route, which normally carries about 12 percent of global maritime trade.
The Houthis say their campaign — as well as a steady stream of attacks on Israeli territory — is in solidarity with the Palestinians.