Sharjah 24 – AFP: The UN rights chief voiced alarm Thursday at the number of Palestinian children killed and wounded this month and demanded those responsible be brought to account.

Last week saw three days of intense conflict between Israel and Islamic Jihad militants in the densely populated Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

"Inflicting hurt on any child during the course of conflict is deeply disturbing," Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement.

"The killing and maiming of so many children this year is unconscionable."

The Israeli air and artillery strikes targeted positions of the Islamic Jihad group.

Her office said 19 Palestinian children had been killed in the Palestinian territories in the recent unrest, taking the total number this year to 37.

The UN Human Rights Office OHCHR said that among the 48 Palestinians killed in last week's Gaza conflict, there were at least 22 civilians. They included 17 children.

Of the 360 Palestinians reported injured, nearly two-thirds were civilians, including 151 children, OHCHR said.

Three Gazan children are on life-support systems at a hospital in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported Thursday.

"In a number of incidents, children were the majority of casualties," Bachelet's office said.

"Launching an attack which may be expected to incidentally kill or injure civilians, or damage civilian objects, in disproportionate manner to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated, is prohibited," she said.

"Such attacks must stop."

Bachelet called for investigations into all incidents where any person was killed or injured.