{"id":264970,"date":"2024-06-24T12:00:21","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=264970"},"modified":"2024-06-21T08:22:43","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T07:22:43","slug":"israels-actions-in-gaza-intentional-attack-on-civilians-un-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/06\/israels-actions-in-gaza-intentional-attack-on-civilians-un-inquiry\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s Actions in Gaza \u2018Intentional Attack on Civilians\u2019: UN Inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"

New report says Israeli military and Palestinian groups committed war crimes and rights abuses since October 7.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

19 Jun 2024 <\/em>– The Israeli military\u2019s \u201cdeliberate\u201d use of heavy weapons in the Gaza Strip<\/a> has been an \u201cintentional and direct attack on the civilian population\u201d, a new report by a United Nations-backed independent commission has found.<\/p>\n

Navi Pillay, chairperson of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said on Wednesday that Israel has committed crimes against humanity, forced starvation, extermination, murder, and inhuman and cruel treatment of Palestinians. She also accused Palestinian groups of war crimes.<\/p>\n

As she presented the report to the UN Human Rights Council, Pillay said the Israeli military operating in Gaza \u201cforcibly transferred almost the entire population into a small enclosure that is unsafe and uninhabitable\u201d and used heavy weapons in densely populated areas in \u201can intentional and direct attack on the civilian population\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pillay said the commission concluded that specific forms of sexual and gender-based violence constituted part of the Israeli forces\u2019 operating procedures.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough Israeli officials have repeatedly stated their operations in Gaza are intended to destroy Hamas and release hostages, yet neither of these aims has been largely achieved at the expense of thousands of lives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that Israeli forces committed sexual and gender-based violence with the intent to humiliate and further subordinate the Palestinian community. Palestinian women were targeted and subjected to sexual violence and harassment online and in person.<\/p>\n

\u201cMen and boys experienced specific persecutory acts, including sexual and gender-based violence amounting to torture and inhuman and cruel treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pillay also noted that the daily onslaught in Gaza must not sideline attention to a parallel wave of violence in the occupied West Bank, where UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Tuesday the situation is \u201cdramatically deteriorating\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers there since the start of the current war in October than in any other recorded period, Pillay told the council.<\/p>\n

War crimes by Palestinian groups<\/h2>\n

Pillay said Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups also committed extensive war crimes on October 7 during their attacks on southern Israel.<\/p>\n

She listed them as: intentionally directing attacks against civilians, murder or willful killing, torture, sexual violence, inhuman or cruel treatment, and the taking of hostages.<\/p>\n

The commission, she said, \u201cidentified patterns indicative of sexual violence and concluded that these were not isolated but perpetrated in similar ways in similar locations, primarily against Israeli women\u201d. The commission\u2019s report said reports of rape could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n

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At the @UN<\/a> Human Rights Council, Navi Pillay, the Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, reiterated calls for a ceasefire and called for the end of the siege in #Gaza<\/a>.#HRC56<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/DYdnvWEGtc<\/a><\/p>\n

— United Nations Human Rights Council \ud83d\udccd #HRC56 (@UN_HRC) June 19, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n