UN human rights chief Volker Turk called Tuesday for an independent investigation into reports that Palestinian armed groups summarily executed six Israeli hostages.
Israel’s military said the six were all captured alive during Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war, and were shot dead shortly before troops found them.
The military announced Sunday it had recovered the bodies from a tunnel in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they were “executed” with a bullet “to the head”.
“We are horrified by reports that Palestinian armed groups summarily executed six Israeli hostages, which would constitute a war crime,” the UN Human Rights Office said on X.
It added that Turk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, “calls for an independent, impartial and transparent investigation and for perpetrators to be held to account”.
With AFP
