A United Nations inquiry into the Gaza war of 2014 has accused Israel and Palestinian factions of multiple potential violations of international law including the suspicion of war crimes.
Calling on Israel to “break with its lamentable track record” and hold perpetrators responsible, a UN commission laid most blame for the violations at the feet of the country’s political and military leadership. The commission said the leadership should have been aware as the war progressed that its failure to change course was leading to huge civilian casualties. “Those responsible for suspected violations of international law at all levels of the political and military establishments must be brought to justice,” it says.
Israel refused to co-operate with the hard-hitting UN Human Rights Council report, which it has already denounced as “biased”. The report accuses bothHamas and the Israeli military of breaches of international law in the way they fought the conflict.
In the case of Hamas and other Palestinian factions, they are accused of using indiscriminate rocket and mortar fire and of the murder of alleged Palestinian collaborators.
“The use of rockets in the possession of Palestinian armed groups, indiscriminate in nature, and any targeted mortar attack against civilians constitute violations of international humanitarian law, in particular of the fundamental principle of distinction, which may amount to a war crime,” the report’s authors conclude.
For its part, however, Israel faces charges in the report’s findings that it potentially breached international law in multiple areas of the conduct of its war.
These include almost every major aspect of Israeli tactics including the targeting of residential homes with precision, the excessive use of artillery in civilian areas, and the loosening of troops rules of engagement during periods like the use of the Hannibal Protocol in Rafah.
COMMENTS