GENEVA, September 9. /TASS/. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk believes that the global community should attach great attention to preventing a regional conflict in the Middle East.

"Ending that war and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority," Turk said at the opening of the 57th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva.

"Equally, the wider situation of illegality across the occupied Palestinian territory deriving from Israel’s policies and practices, as so clearly spelled out by the International Court of Justice in its Advisory Opinion in July, must be comprehensively addressed," the high commissioner added.

Turk recalled the dire consequences of escalation in the occupied territories. "Since the horrific October 7 attacks claimed the lives of over 1,200 victims in Israel and injured many others, over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, several thousand injured, and thousands remain under the rubble in Gaza," the official said. According to him, "nearly 1.9 million people have been forcibly displaced."

Eleven months later, 101 Israeli hostages are still held in the Gaza Strip. Nearly 10,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli prisons or special military facilities, "with over 50 people having died due to inhumane conditions and ill-treatment." In the West Bank, Israel's "deadly and destructive operations" are exacerbating the "calamitous situation," Turk concluded.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.

The 57th session of the HRC, which will last until October 11, will feature reports by Turk and UN Special Rapporteurs on Ukraine, Syria, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Other topics of the session include the situation in Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, the Central African Republic and some other countries. Russia is not a member of the HRC, but its delegation actively participates in the session.