Martin Griffiths, the former UN humanitarian chief and current executive director of Mediation Group International, has condemned Israel’s killing of 15 aid workers in Gaza as “almost certainly a war crime”.

“It’s almost inhuman,” he told Al Jazeera in a rebuke. “I don’t understand the culture within the [Israeli military] and those platoons for them to be able to do this. It’s a complete inhumane horror.”

Griffiths, who once led the UN’s emergency relief operations, didn’t mince words. In his view, a this ws moment that demanded global reckoning. “It’s something to grieve, to observe, to record and to remind,” he said.

Griffiths is now pushing for action, calling on countries bound by the Geneva Conventions to demand an independent investigation.

“This must go through the UN Security Council,” he insisted, “and then presumably to the International Criminal Court.”