The findings were from two parallel reports, one focusing on the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and another on Israel's military response, published by the U.N. Commission of Inquiry (COI), which has an unusually broad mandate to collect evidence and identify perpetrators of international crimes committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel does not cooperate with the commission, which it says has an anti-Israel bias. The COI says Israel obstructs its work and prevented investigators from accessing both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel's diplomatic mission to the U.N. in Geneva rejected the findings. "The COI has once again proven that its actions are all in the service of a narrow-led political agenda against Israel," said Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel's Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva.
Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
By Israel's count more than 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage in the Oct. 7 cross-border attacks that sparked a military retaliation in Gaza that has since killed over 37,000 people, by Palestinian tallies.
The reports, which cover the conflict through to end-December, found that both sides committed war crimes including torture; murder or willful killing; outrages upon personal dignity; and inhuman or cruel treatment.
Israel also committed additional war crimes including starvation as a method of warfare, it said, saying Israel not only failed to provide essential supplies like food, water, shelter and medicine to Gazans but "acted to prevent the supply of those necessities by anyone else".
Some of the war crimes such as murder also constituted crimes against humanity by Israel, the COI statement said, using a term reserved for the most serious international crimes knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians.
"The immense numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza and widespread destruction of civilian objects and infrastructure were the inevitable result of a strategy undertaken with intent to cause maximum damage, disregarding the principles of distinction, proportionality and adequate precautions," the COI statement said.
Sometimes, the evidence gathered by such U.N.-mandated bodies has formed the basis for war crimes prosecutions and could be drawn on by the International Criminal Court.
Mass killings, sexual violence and humiliation
The COI's findings are based on interviews with victims and witnesses, hundreds of submissions, satellite imagery, medical reports and verified open-source information.
Among the findings in the 59-page report on the Oct. 7 attacks, the commission verified four incidents of mass killings in public shelters which it said suggests militants had "standing operational instructions". It also identified "a pattern of sexual violence" by Palestinian armed groups but could not independently verify reports of rape.
The longer 126-page Gaza report said Israel's use of weapons such as MK84 guided bombs with a large destructive capacity in urban areas were incompatible with international humanitarian law "as they cannot adequately or accurately discriminate between the intended military targets and civilian objects".
It also said Palestinian men and boys were subject to the crime against humanity of gender persecution, citing cases where victims were forced to strip naked in public in moves "intended to inflict severe humiliation".
Comment:
The findings will be discussed by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva next week.
The COI composed of three independent experts including its chair South African former U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay was set up in 2021 by the Geneva council. Unusually, it has an open-ended mandate -- a fact criticised by both Israel and some of its allies.
Reader Comments
In other matters, such as the actions of the WHO - (who be that?), - out of the UN pathetic entity they prove their harm upon humanity.
The UN, and the WHO have proven themselves utterly worthless - they both merit no consideration and ought wither on the vine or maybe be dismantled - but who will dismantle the broken entity of broken promises upon all of humanity?
The only way I can think of circumventing the Heavily compromised and ineffective UN is to form a worldwide Volunteer group made up of only Humans, No Nations and Corporations.
The Group needs to Formulate a 'passport' that acknowledges the sovereign rights of each Human as a common right. The rights of representation at Law, right to vote and a host of other protections from National government malfeasance.
The long game would mean that a united world run by it's people would reach a natural superiority in numbers thus making our Nationalist governments powerless.
The other choice is that the bullies continue to screw us all over for ever.
The new group needs to be cheap to join and be able to raise funds and patronage to navigate peacefully a new way.
Violence got us to this corrupt and dangerous impasse we now face. It will not deliver peace ever. It cannot by it's nature.
Tis a quandary nowadays when harm being pushed upon humanity is so " in our faces " on so many levels large-scale. I concur the solution is not more violence. At the same time - " turning the other cheek " collectively will not stop the bullies evidently out there....that is where the concept of " Justified Retribution " offers possible remedy? It is "just" by definition and entails "retribution" for harm caused large-scale.
Who knows - tis a quandary - forces out there that are manipulative and harmful large-scale need to be rebuffed with principle stout and resolute.
I do think that remedy begins locally - small-scale - and that is what I spend most of my time working towards. For me gardening and sharpening my skills doing simple thing like tile work, repair jobs, painting....whatever - physical work - that is what gives me the most pleasure and unlike chatting on the web most of the time, after a task is finished to your satisfaction you can think to yourself - I just accomplished something worthwhile, and then that has a way of affecting how you interact with others face-to-face.
Regards,
BK