U.N.-backed human rights experts say in a report issued Wednesday that Israeli forces have committed crimes against humanity.
The independent experts, in a detailed chronicling of events that have mostly been reported in the media, said Israeli forces have committed war crimes in Gaza. The independent Commission of Inquiry’s report is the United Nations’ first in-depth investigation into the events of the ongoing war.
In their actions in Gaza, the commission found the Israeli authorities “responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare, murder or wilful killing, intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, forcible transfer, sexual violence, torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, arbitrary detention and outrages upon personal dignity”.
Starvation will affect the Gaza population, particularly children, “for decades to come”, the report said, while “the siege it imposed… constitutes collective punishment and reprisal against the civilian population, both of which are clear violations of IHL.”
It noted “a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Gaza”.
The report said that frequency, prevalence and severity of sexual and gender-based crimes against Palestinians by Israeli security forces during the period late last year amounted to signs that some forms of such violence “are part of ISF operating procedures.“
In the West Bank, the commission found that Israeli forces committed acts of sexual violence, torture and inhuman or cruel treatment and outrages upon personal dignity, “all of which are war crimes”.
As violence surges in the occupied West Bank, Palestinians and human rights groups decry an increasingly blurry distinction between the Israeli army and settlers, emboldened by the current pro-settlement government.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded 1,096 settler attacks on Palestinians in the territory between October 7, 2023 and March 31, 2024. That represents an average of six attacks per day, up from two a day in 2022.
Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, which also records settler violence, said 2023 was already a peak year. With each attack, a similar story — armed settlers, sometimes wearing the army’s khaki fatigues, attack Palestinian villagers, burn their houses and cars, and steal their livestock, sometimes under the passive gaze of soldiers.
Israel’s government and forces “permitted, fostered and instigated a campaign of settler violence against Palestinian communities” in the territory, the commission added.
The report is based on interviews with victims and witnesses conducted remotely, and in Turkey and Egypt, and through studying thousands of verified open-source items, satellite imagery and forensic medical reports, the commission said.
“Israel obstructed the commission’s investigations and prevented its access to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” it added.
Israel, which has refused to cooperate with the body and accused it of bias, rejected the allegations.
The report, which covered the time between the Oct. 7 attack and the end of last year, also alleged military wings of Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups of performing “deliberate killings” and mistreatment of civilians and hostage-takings which amount to war crimes.
In its report, the UN Commission of Inquiry also concluded that members of Hamas, other Palestinian armed groups and civilians participating in the October 7 attack “deliberately killed, injured, mistreated, took hostages and committed sexual and gender-based violence”.
These acts were committed against civilians and members of the Israeli security forces.
“These actions constitute war crimes and violations and abuses of IHL and IHRL,” it said.
The commission further said it found “significant evidence on the desecration of corpses, including sexualised desecration, decapitations, lacerations, burning, severing of body parts and undressing”.
“Women were subjected to gender-based violence during the course of their execution or abduction. Women and women’s bodies were used as victory trophies by male perpetrators.”
Many children who witnessed their relatives being killed were “also filmed for propaganda purposes”, with the commission finding it “particularly egregious that children were targeted for abduction”.
Despite noting denials by Hamas’ military wing, and several investigative reports that debunked the allegations put forth by Israeli eyewitnesses without any evidence, the report said that it found significant evidence to conclude that “sexual and gender-based violence” was committed by Hamas militants.
The report further noted that Israeli authorities “failed to protect civilians in southern Israel on almost every front”.
It also noted that Israeli authorities “failed to protect civilians in southern Israel on almost every front”, including failing to swiftly deploy sufficient security forces to protect civilians and evacuate them from civilian locations on 7 October.
In several locations, ISF applied the so-called ‘Hannibal Directive’ and killed at least 14 Israeli civilians. That Directive is reportedly a procedure to prevent capture of ISF members by enemy forces and was alleged to have been directed against Israeli civilians on 7 October.
“Israeli authorities also failed to ensure that forensic evidence was systematically collected by concerned authorities and first responders, particularly in relation to allegations of sexual violence, undermining the possibility of future judicial proceedings, accountability and justice,” the Commission added.
The expert panel was commissioned in 2021 by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council to look into rights violations and abuses in Israel and the Palestinian areas it controls. Led by Navi Pillay, a former U.N. human rights chief, they are independent experts and do not speak for the world body itself. Israel has refused to cooperate with the team of experts.
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva responded that the report “outrageously and repugnantly attempts to draw a false equivalence between IDF soldiers and Hamas terrorists with regards to acts of sexual violence” and reiterating longstanding claims of anti-Israel discrimination by the experts.
Israel’s response to the UN report marked the latest sign of the growing gulf between the two parties as the former have come under constant criticism by the international agency for its brutal war in Gaza.
The Commission further concluded that the immense numbers of civilian casualties and widespread destruction of civilian objects and vital civilian infrastructure were the “inevitable results of Israel’s chosen strategy for the use of force” during these hostilities, undertaken with intent to cause maximum damage, disregarding distinction, proportionality and adequate precautions, and thus unlawful.
“ISF’s intentional use of heavy weapons with large destructive capacity in densely populated areas constitutes an intentional and direct attack on the civilian population, particularly affecting women and children,” the Commission said, adding that this was confirmed by the substantial and increasing numbers of casualties, over weeks and months, with “no change in Israeli policies or military strategies”.
On Tuesday, the U.N. human rights office — which is separate from the panel of independent experts — cited possible war crimes by Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in connection with a military operation in which the Israeli military personnel disguised as humanitarian aid workers entered a refugee camp in Gaza, as reported by The Times of Israel, and massacred more than 300 Palestinians most of them women and children. Israel also rescued four of its hostages taken captive by Hamas in its October 7 attack. This was the first notable win for the Israeli military in its eight month long war in Gaza that killed more than 36,000 Palestinians including more than 15,000 children.
Among its recommendations, the Commission report called on the Government of Israel to immediately end attacks resulting in the killing and maiming of civilians in Gaza, end the siege on Gaza, implement a ceasefire, ensure that those whose property has been unlawfully destroyed receive reparations, and ensure that necessities crucial for the health and well-being of the civilian population immediately reach those in need.
It also called on the Government of the State of Palestine and the de-facto authorities in Gaza to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held in the enclave; ensure their protection, including from sexual and gender-based violence; report on their state of health and wellbeing; allow visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), contact with families and medical attention, and ensure their treatment in compliance with international humanitarian and human rights laws.
“Stop all indiscriminate firing of rockets, mortars and other munitions towards civilian populations,” it added.
AP/AFP/F24/UN
Siddhartha 