The United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict has gathered substantial information pointing to the possible commission of war crimes by both Israel and Palestinian armed groups.
“The extent of the devastation and human suffering in Gaza was unprecedented and will impact generations to come,” the chair of the commission, Justice Mary McGowan Davis told a press briefing today, adding that, “there is also on-going fear in Israel among communities who come under regular threat”.
The 2014 hostilities saw a huge increase in firepower used in Gaza, with more than 6,000 airstrikes by Israel and approximately 50,000 tank and artillery shells fired. In the 51 day operation, 1,462 Palestinian civilians were killed, a third of them children. Palestinian armed groups fired 4,881 rockets and 1,753 mortars towards Israel in July and August 2014, killing 6 civilians and injuring at least 1,600.
Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed in their own homes, especially women and children. Survivors gave graphic testimony describing air strikes that reduced buildings to piles of dust and rubble in seconds. “I woke up…in the hospital, and I later learned that my sister, mother and my children had all died,” said a member of the Al Najjar family after an attack in Khan Younis on 26 July that killed 19 of his relatives, “We all died that day even those who survived”.
At least 142 families lost three or more members in an attack on a residential building during the summer of 2014, resulting in 742 deaths. The fact that Israel did not revise its practice of air-strikes, even after their dire effects on civilians became apparent, raises the question of whether this was part of a broader policy which was at least tacitly approved at the highest level of government.
The commission is concerned about Israel’s extensive use of weapons with a wide kill and injury radius; though not illegal, their use in densely populated areas is highly likely to kill combatants and civilians indiscriminately. There appears also to be a pattern whereby the IDF issued warnings to people to leave a neighbourhood and then automatically considered anyone remaining to be a fighter. This practice makes attacks on civilians highly likely. During the Israeli ground incursion into Gaza that began in mid-July 2014, hundreds of people were killed and thousands of homes destroyed or damaged.
Press Release
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16119&LangID=E
Q & A, Summary & Full UN Report
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/CoIGazaConflict/Pages/ReportCoIGaza.aspx
B'Tselem: UN report is a reminder - Over 1.5 million people live in the Gaza Strip. It is not a battlefield
http://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/20150630_un_report_on_gaza
B'Tselem: Israel not capable of investigating itself in Gaza
http://www.btselem.org/accountability/20140905_failure_to_investigate
Lessons from the UN Gaza report: Next stop, ICC?
http://972mag.com/lessons-from-the-un-gaza-report-next-stop-icc/108053/
“Balance” in UN Gaza report can’t hide massive Israeli war crimes
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/balance-un-gaza-report-cant-hide-massive-israeli-war-crimes
UN accuses Israel and Hamas of possible war crimes during 2014 Gaza conflict
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/22/un-accuses-israel-and-hamas-of-possible-war-crimes-during-2014-gaza-war
UN Gaza report: Five Palestinians' harrowing stories from the horror of the IDF bombardment of 2014
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/un-gaza-report-five-palestinians-stories-from-the-horror-of-the-idf-bombardment-10336864.html
UN report on Gaza war includes stories of civilian executions, attacks on ambulances and targeting of humanitarian facilities
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/06/executions-humanitarian-facilities
No comments:
Post a Comment