The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani on escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah
“We are extremely alarmed by the sharp escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah and call on all parties to immediately cease the violence and to ensure the protection of civilians,” UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said.
“Yesterday marked the deadliest day of violence in years, with reports of at least 492 killed and 1,645 injured following a series of Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon,” Shamdasani told the weekly press briefing in Geneva.
“Lebanon’s health ministry said 35 children and 58 women were among those killed, as well as a number of medical workers. On a personal note, one of our UN Human Rights colleagues in Beirut lost seven of her family members yesterday including two children aged eight and one in an Israeli airstrike in South Lebanon,” she said.
“Roads in southern Lebanon are crammed with people in cars fleeing the violence. This latest violence follows last week’s deadly pager and two-way radio attacks in Lebanon and Syria, and the firing of hundreds of rockets by Hezbollah into Israel from Lebanon,” she added.
“International humanitarian law is very clear. All parties to an armed conflict must at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives. Constant care must be taken to spare the civilian population and civilian objects. The laws of war also oblige all parties to observe the principle of proportionality,” Shamdasani stressed.
“Incidents in which any civilians – including children and medical workers – are killed or seriously injured, potentially in violation of international law, must be subject to independent, thorough, and transparent investigations into the circumstances of the attacks,” she said.
“The UN High Commissioner Volker Türk calls on all States and actors with influence in the region and beyond to avert further escalation and do everything they can to ensure full respect for international law,” said Shamdasani.
ENDS
For more information and media requests, please contact:
In Geneva
Ravina Shamdasani - + 41 22 917 9169 / ravina.shamdasani@un.org or
Liz Throssell - + 41 22 917 9296 / elizabeth.throssell@un.org or
Jeremy Laurence - +41 22 917 9383 / jeremy.laurence@un.org
Tag and share
Twitter @UNHumanRights
Facebook unitednationshumanrights
Instagram @unitednationshumanrights
STORY: UN Human Rights Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani on escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
TRT: 02:27
SOURCE: OHCHR / UNOG
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: English/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 24 September 2024 – GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exterior shots : Palais de Nations
- Cut aways: Briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)—Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “We are extremely alarmed by the sharp escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah and call on all parties to immediately cease the violence and to ensure the protection of civilians.”
- Cut aways: Briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)—Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Yesterday marked the deadliest day of violence in years, with reports of at least 492 killed and 1,645 injured following a series of Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon.”
- Cut aways: Briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)—Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Lebanon’s health ministry said 35 children and 58 women were among those killed, as well as a number of medical workers. On a personal note, one of our UN Human Rights colleagues in Beirut lost seven of her family members yesterday including two children aged eight and one in an Israeli airstrike in South Lebanon.”
- Cut aways: Briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)—Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Roads in southern Lebanon are crammed with people in cars fleeing the violence. This latest violence follows last week’s deadly pager and two-way radio attacks in Lebanon and Syria, and the firing of hundreds of rockets by Hezbollah into Israel from Lebanon.”
- Cut aways: Briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)—Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “International humanitarian law is very clear. All parties to an armed conflict must at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives. Constant care must be taken to spare the civilian population and civilian objects. The laws of war also oblige all parties to observe the principle of proportionality.”
- Cut aways: Briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)—Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Incidents in which any civilians – including children and medical workers – are killed or seriously injured, potentially in violation of international law, must be subject to independent, thorough, and transparent investigations into the circumstances of the attacks.”
- Cut aways: Briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)—Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “The UN High Commissioner Volker Türk calls on all States and actors with influence in the region and beyond to avert further escalation and do everything they can to ensure full respect for international law.”
- Cut aways: Briefing room
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN rights chief concerned by upheld convictions of Cambodian activists.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR , OHCHR
Middle East crisis puts aid, food, fuel further out of reach for millions already struggling – UN agencies
As the Middle East crisis continues the humanitarian fallout is worsening, with aid route disruptions and food and fuel price hikes wrecking the lives and rights of the most vulnerable, UN agencies warned on Friday.
1
1
2
Edited News | UNMAS
Demining experts from around the world have been sharing their collective shock at the widespread and growing threat from unexploded ordnance, the new head of the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) said on Wednesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office in Syria conducted a 5-day visit to the northeast of the country where they received accounts of human rights violations and abuses.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNICEF
Sudan: ‘History repeating itself’ for Darfur’s children - UNICEF
Mass atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur 20 years ago reverberated as far as Hollywood, but today, a new generation of children faces attacks, hunger and displacement in an emergency largely ignored by the outside world, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
Edited News | WHO , UNMAS
Desperate and dangerous conditions in Gaza continue to hamper recovery efforts for the wartorn enclave's people, the UN health agency said on Friday, while demining experts warned that they’ve “barely scratched the surface” in assessing the level of contamination of unexploded ordnance.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News
The continued support of UN Member States to Lebanon will be “indispensable” to boost the country’s national armed forces and provide humanitarian assistance with more than one million people still uprooted by the Middle East war, the UN's peacekeeping chief said on Wednesday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | UNECE
Middle East war: After oil and gas shortages, concerns grow over critical minerals crunch
The shipping crisis in the Strait of Hormuz caused by war in the Middle East has exposed a new threat: a looming shortage of strategic minerals needed to drive economies all over the world and a race by countries to obtain them.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM
Millions of desperate Sudanese return home amid dire conditions as war rages – IOM
Three years into the devastating conflict in Sudan, nearly four million displaced people have returned to their places of origin across the country, only to face “another struggle for survival”, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNESCO
UNESCO protects cultural sites in war-torn Middle East, confirming damage to key heritage.
1
1
1
Edited News | UN WOMEN
The war in Gaza has inflicted a far higher toll on women and girls than in previous conflicts in the Palestinian enclave, with more than 38,000 killed by Israeli air bombardment and land military operations since Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel sparked the war in October 2023, UN Women said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
In 2025, nearly 900 Rohingya refugees were reported missing or dead in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal, making it the deadliest year on record in South and Southeast Asia, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday.