UN probe accuses Israel of crimes against humanity

A UN investigation has concluded that Israel has committed crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza, including that of ‘extermination’.

A UN report finds Israel and militant Palestinian groups have committed horrific crimes since October 7. Picture: AFP

A UN investigation has concluded that Israel has committed crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza, including that of “extermination”, while saying Israeli and Palestinian groups have committed war crimes.

The independent Commission of Inquiry’s report is the UN’s first in-depth investigation into the events of the war.

“The commission found that the crimes against humanity of extermination; murder; gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys; forcible transfer; and torture and inhuman and cruel treatment were committed,” it said.

Israel rejected the conclusions, accusing the UN commission of “systematic anti-Israeli discrimination”.

The commission 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.

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”.

Also, Israeli authorities “failed to protect civilians in southern Israel on almost every front”.

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”.

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”.

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.

AFP