Internal letter also calls on UN member states to suspend arms sales, saying ‘criticising Israel is not enough’

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Hundreds of employees of the United Nations’ leading human rights agency have backed an internal letter telling its leadership to declare Israel’s offensive in Gaza a genocide and to call on UN member states to suspend arms sales to Israel.

The 1,100-word letter, signed by about a quarter of the 2,000 staff of the Geneva- and New York-based Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), says the Israeli offensive in Gaza meets the legal threshold of genocide and that this means “arms sales, transfers and related logistical or financial support to Israeli authorities” constitutes a clear breach of international law by all those involved.