The UN’s high commissioner for human rights has issued a statement on Gaza’s mounting death toll, which exceeded 40,000 on Thursday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

“Today marks a grim milestone for the world,” said Volker Turk. “This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the [Israeli military] to comply with the rules of war.”

“Gaza’s entire society is being killed as the world watches”

The killing of 40,000 people in Gaza should be “a source of eternal global shame,” Islamic Relief has said, adding that behind every number was a person.

“They include babies, children, mothers, fathers, farmers, shopkeepers, students, teachers, journalists, doctors, aid workers, artists, entrepreneurs, grandparents and much more,” it said in a statement.

“Gaza’s entire society is being killed as the world watches.”

It added that the deaths were “the inevitable consequence of allowing international law to be violated with impunity” and called on governments to suspend their support to Israel, including halting arms sales and trade agreements.

Real death toll likely to top 50,000

The official death toll in Gaza has surpassed 40,000, but another 10,000 people remain missing under the rubble of collapsed buildings, the Hamas government media office said at a press conference.

It said the official death toll only included casualties that had been brought to hospitals but that more bodies were yet to be retrieved, meaning the real number of deaths may surpass 50,000.

It added that 92,401 people had been injured, many of whom could not receive medical treatment due to the collapse of the health system.

‘Blood is on our hands,’ US peace group

The US-based peace organization Fellowship of Reconciliation has criticized the Biden administration for paying “lip service” to ceasefire talks days after approving an additional $20bn in weapons sales to Israel as Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the besieged Palestinian territory.

“The blood is on all our hands around the world, but especially on ours here in the US, where we are supplying the tools of destruction and death,” Executive Director Ariel Gold told Al Jazeera from New Jersey.

“As much as this is Israel’s war and tragedy, this is America’s war and tragedy,” she added.

Gold expressed hope that a new US administration led by Vice President Kamala Harris after November’s election would break from Biden’s policy of unconditional support for Israel.

“We are seeing very large shifts in public opinion towards Palestinian rights. The question is whether those shifts are large enough and will come soon enough to save lives,” she said.

Loss of life in Gaza ‘unimaginable’

US-based humanitarian organization Mercy Corps CEO says it is hard to “fully comprehend” the death toll from Israel’s war in Gaza, which has now crossed 40,000.

“These are not just numbers – each person killed was someone’s son, daughter, mother, father, or grandparent,” Tjada D’Oyen McKenna said in a statement.

“The scale of loss is unimaginable yet shows no sign of stopping while conflict, preventable hunger, malnutrition, disease, and illness continue to claim lives in Gaza every day. It is time for those with the power to end this carnage to take action.”

‘Shocking’ 40,000 deaths in Gaza were preventable

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese says the “shocking” death toll in Gaza was predictable and avoidable as United Nations experts have long issued warnings and called for international action to stop the violence.

Albanese issued a report saying there were “reasonable grounds” to believe Israel has been committing genocide and the International Court of Justice declared the accusation to be “plausible”. In spite of this, the UN Security Council and other international bodies have failed to stop the conflict.

“The moral abyss in which [Israel has] fallen is hard to comprehend,” Albanese told Al Jazeera, adding that the war in Gaza points to “an epic failure of the system of international law that was built after World War II to prevent and punish crimes such as this”.

The conflict also shed light on the “hypocrisy” in the legal system, where “a few countries have the power to determine to whom international law can be applied and to whom it cannot”.

‘The world is complicit with Israel’

The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 16,456 of those deaths were children.

Several Gaza residents told Al Jazeera what they made of the passing of the grim milestone:

“If this happened in any European country, how would other countries react? How would the media respond? There would have been a reaction, condemnation and a stronger response,” Ismail Abu Karsh said. “We are at a stage where a person in Gaza has no value. They are just a number.”

Aseel Matar lambasted the international community for failing to stop the killings.

“Can you imagine what 40,000 means? It is a catastrophic number that the world cannot imagine,” she said. “Despite this, the world sees, is aware, hears and watches us every day, every minute, but remains silent, and we are powerless. We are exhausted. We have no energy left.”

Abu Mustafa said the world was complicit in Israel’s actions.

“Enough. Even if this is revenge against Palestinians, they have taken enough revenge. Enough. Intervention is needed,” he said. “What is happening proves that the world is complicit with Israel and the entire world is intent on the destruction of the Palestinian people.”