Anti-ISIS forces are being urged to take all feasible precautions to minimise harm when carrying out attacks, and ensure that civilians can safely evacuate the Old City and get humanitarian assistance both inside and outside the besieged area.
The statement was published the same day the United Nations said up to 80 civilians were killed in one strike on May 31.
"Shooting children as they try to run to safety with their families - there are no words of condemnation strong enough for such despicable acts", the statement quoted U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein as saying.
"The United Nations has estimated that 200,000 civilians remain in the two-square-kilometer area in west Mosul's Old City, which Iraqi and US-led coalition forces are encircling in preparation for the battle there", said a joint statement from the six prominent NGOs.
Iraqi forces backed by the US -led coalition have been working to rout ISIS from their remaining neighborhoods in west Mosul.
Iraqi government forces advance in western Mosul's al-Zanjili neighborhood on June 7, 2017, during ongoing battles to retake the city from Daesh terrorists.
Citing "credible reports", the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a press release more than 231 civilians have been killed attempting to flee since May 26.
Another 27 people, including 14 women and five children, were killed while trying to flee the radicals just days before in the same district.
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Another UCSF physician and at least one Stanford Health Care doctor were also targeted, the report said. Officers say they found two loaded semi-automatic handguns with high-capacity magazines in the auto .
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and a number of other rights groups issued a joint statement warning that some air strikes and unguided munitions used against the Islamic State group in the northern Iraqi city were inappropriate.
"The murder of civilians, as well as the intentional directing of an attack against civilians who are not directly taking part in hostilities, are war crimes", it said.
OHCHR also said recent airstrikes in IS-held areas in west Mosul killed up to 80 civilians.
The group went beyond killing ISIS fighters by promising to track down the families of Islamic State operatives and exhorting followers to burn their homes. "Now we will hurt theirs", one Hammam al-Alil member explained. "In some cases, they have been forced to participate in the fighting and violence".
The jihadists have on several occasions killed civilians who were attempting to flee or were even just suspected of planning to do so.
The U.S. -led coalition has been bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq since August 2014 and in Syria since September of that year.
Their harrowing flight, recounted by survivors, illustrates the dangers that residents of Iraq's second largest city have faced throughout months of heavy fighting as Iraqi forces, backed by a USA -led coalition, struggle to drive the militants out.
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