U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk said on Thursday war crimes had been committed by all parties in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, calling for them to be investigated and for those responsible to be held accountable.

Turk UN High Commissioner for Human Rights addresses the Human Rights Council in Geneva

"Clear violations of international human rights and humanitarian laws, including war crimes and possibly other crimes under international law, have been committed by all parties," Turk told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

"It is time - well past time - for peace, investigation and accountability."

Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 people and captured 253 hostages in an attack on Israel on Oct. 7, according to Israeli tallies.

The attack sparked an Israeli offensive in Hamas-run Gaza, which it says is intended to rescue the remaining hostages and eradicate Hamas. Health authorities in Gaza say more than 30,000 people have been confirmed killed during the offensive.

Turk, who was presenting a report on the human rights situation in Gaza and in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said his office had recorded "many incidents that may amount to war crimes by Israeli forces". He added there were also indications that Israeli forces have engaged in "indiscriminate or disproportionate targeting" in violation of international law.

Turk said Palestinian armed groups launching indiscriminate projectiles across southern Israel and the holding of hostages also violated international humanitarian law.

Israel says it is doing all it can to minimise harm to civilians.

In a speech that drew applause by many attendees at the U.N. Human Rights Council, Palestinian Ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi said: "Unfortunately, some condemn what happened on Oct. 7, and with the strongest terms possible too, but no one remembers or condemns the killing of children, women, and elderly."

Elan Tiv, the daughter of former hostage Aviva Siegel who attended Turk's speech along with her mother, said those who applauded the Palestinian intervention "should be ashamed" of themselves.

"You shouldn't be able to sleep at night, because there are kids on both sides that are being killed," said Tiv, whose father Keith remains captive in Gaza.

Turk added that a ground offensive in the southern border town of Rafah, where some 1.5 million people are estimated to be crammed after fleeing their homes further north to escape Israel's offensive, would incur massive loss of life.

He said such an assault would increase the risk of atrocity crimes, spur more displacement and "sign a death warrant for any hope of effective humanitarian aid."

Israeli assault on Rafah would flout international court: UN rights chief

Israel's planned ground assault on Rafah in the Gaza Strip would contravene the orders issued by the United Nations' highest court, the UN human rights chief said on Thursday.

On January 26, the International Court of Justice in The Hague -- while stopping short of ordering an immediate halt to the war in Gaza -- said Israel must "prevent the commission of all acts within the scope" of the Genocide Convention.

"I fail to see how such an operation could be consistent with the binding provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice," Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council.

The ICJ said Israel must facilitate "urgently needed" humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory, under relentless bombardment and siege since an attack in Israel by Hamas militants on October 7.

"The prospect of an Israeli ground assault on Rafah would take the nightmare being inflicted on people in Gaza into a new dimension," said Turk.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the army will launch a ground invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip -- where an estimated 1.4 million Palestinian civilians have sought refuge.

The war began after the October 7 attack by Hamas, which killed about 1,160 people in Israel, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures.

The Palestinian militants also took hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza.

Israel's retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza have killed more than 30,000 people in under five months, most of them women and children, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Turk repeated that the Hamas attacks on Israel in October were "shocking, profoundly traumatising and totally unjustifiable".

"The killing of civilians, reports of torture and sexual violence inflicted by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, and the holding of hostages since that time, are appalling and entirely wrong," he said.

"And so is the brutality of the Israeli response," he added, calling it "carnage".

"There appear to be no bounds to -- no words to capture -- the horrors that are unfolding before our eyes in Gaza," said Turk.

- 'We must go after Hamas' -

Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel's ambassador in Geneva, told the Human Rights Council it was an "echo chamber where the human rights of Israelis and Jews mean nothing".

She was accompanied by Aviva Siegel and Raz Ben Ami -- two Israeli hostages who were freed by Hamas in November. Their husbands are still being held in Gaza.

"These halls should have been a symbol of hope for Aviva and Raz and all the hostages; that the world would act for their human rights and for their release. Yet unfortunately, they have become a mere footnote in the discourse of this council," said Eilon Shahar.

"You think if Israel stops this war today, Hamas will return all our hostages tomorrow?" she said, addressing Turk.

"We must go after Hamas, or they will continue to come after us."

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 104 people were killed and more than 750 injured after Israeli soldiers opened fire on civilians at an aid distribution point earlier Thursday.

Palestinian ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi interjected to ask Eilon Shahar what she thought of the incident.

"Are these human shields? Are these Hamas combatants?", asked Khraishi, who received sustained applause.