23 june 2015
The first submission to the International Criminal Court (ICC) by Palestine is due to be made on Thursday 25 June. The file will focus on Israel’s breaches of international law and will be submitted to ICC chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda.
The file, which will be submitted this coming Thursday to the ICC chief prosecutor, will be a general overview of Palestine’s case against Israel. Further details of specific incidents will then be presented if Bensouda decides to proceed with an investigation, said Palestinian Foreign Ministry official Ammar Hijazi.
Palestine officially joined the ICC on April 1 after negotiations with Israel failed to alter Israel’s illegal settlement expansion policy in the West Bank of Palestine.
This move comes as part of Palestine’s push to gain justice for Israeli crimes perpetrated against Palestinians and Palestinian territory, including Israeli violations of international law during the 2014 assault on the barricaded Gaza Strip which left over 2100 Palestinians dead and over 11,100 injured.
According to Jerusalem Post, Israel Law Center Shurat Hadin will however be seeking to bar Bensouda from dealing with this case due to her alleged ‘bias’ against Israel. The NGO said that her decision to recognize Palestine as a state ‘without debate’, as well as a request Bensouda reiterated for Israel’s full cooperation, showed that she was not completely impartial.
A press briefing will be held by Dr. Mustafa Barghouti on June 24 on behalf of the Higher National Committee for the ICC.
The file, which will be submitted this coming Thursday to the ICC chief prosecutor, will be a general overview of Palestine’s case against Israel. Further details of specific incidents will then be presented if Bensouda decides to proceed with an investigation, said Palestinian Foreign Ministry official Ammar Hijazi.
Palestine officially joined the ICC on April 1 after negotiations with Israel failed to alter Israel’s illegal settlement expansion policy in the West Bank of Palestine.
This move comes as part of Palestine’s push to gain justice for Israeli crimes perpetrated against Palestinians and Palestinian territory, including Israeli violations of international law during the 2014 assault on the barricaded Gaza Strip which left over 2100 Palestinians dead and over 11,100 injured.
According to Jerusalem Post, Israel Law Center Shurat Hadin will however be seeking to bar Bensouda from dealing with this case due to her alleged ‘bias’ against Israel. The NGO said that her decision to recognize Palestine as a state ‘without debate’, as well as a request Bensouda reiterated for Israel’s full cooperation, showed that she was not completely impartial.
A press briefing will be held by Dr. Mustafa Barghouti on June 24 on behalf of the Higher National Committee for the ICC.
While drawing attention to state complicity with regard to war crimes committed by Israel, the UNHRC report employs the same non-committal rhetoric that shifts evidence towards the realm of probability
Following its insensitive and macabre efforts to downplay the repercussions and atrocities of Operation Protective Edge, Israel has now attempted to ridicule the UN Human Rights Council report on last summer's aggression.
The report, which Israel pronounced as "morally flawed", has accused both Israel and Palestinian resistance groups of war crimes, contradicting Israel's "internal investigation" that justified every intentionally targeted civilian death as collateral damage and thus, bequeathing impunity to the state's false morality conjectures.
While drawing attention to state complicity with regard to war crimes committed by Israel, the report employs the same non-committal rhetoric that shifts evidence towards the realm of probability. "Directing attacks against civilians constitutes a violation of the principle of distinction and may amount to a war crime." Such statements indicate that the report's value will probably serve as some form of heightened awareness and confirmation of the massacre that took place last summer but fail to provide a foundation with which to hold Israel accountable for its premeditated actions.
A statement released by the Israeli Foreign Minister criticised the UNHRC report, stating it was "commissioned by a notoriously biased institution, given an obviously biased mandate." Additionally, the statement attempts to reinforce the internationally-adopted drivel that seeks to create a false dimension of morality and terror. Quoted in the Times of Israel, the Israeli Foreign Ministry statement reads: "It is regrettable that the report fails to recognise the profound difference between Israel's moral behaviour during Operation Protective Edge and the terror organisations it confronted."
So moral, in fact, that the report juxtaposes widespread destruction, displacement and murder committed by the Israeli army, against the "trauma" allegedly endured by Israeli settlers of siren sounds and fear of being "attacked at any moment by gunmen bursting out of the ground" – the latter with reference to the tunnel network utilised by Palestinian resistance and which was annihilated by Israel in its quest to prevent Palestinians from making legitimate use of their territory within historic Palestine.
Predictably, Israel deemed the report biased, despite its refusal to participate and cooperate with the commission during its investigations. Netanyahu has instead accused the UNHRC of slander – a predictable response that is well ingrained in Israel's international repertoire and also rendered evident in recent altercations with the organisation.
It is disconcerting, albeit expected, to observe that the UNHRC's use of language falls into the same confines of affirming war crimes yet at the same time allowing Israel to navigate the obscure parameters that still provide impunity. This is particularly evident in the report's recommendations to Israel, the Palestinian Authority, as well Palestinian resistance movements. Calling upon Israel to abide by international law when its very existence is an infringement of that law renders the recommendations ludicrous, allowing Israel the opportunity to colonise further territory as long as certain requirements and definitions are implemented.
Conversely, the UNHRC report expects Palestinians to relinquish their anti-colonial struggle – in other words, "to stop all rocket attacks and other actions that may spread terror among Israeli civilians." The UNHRC report is indeed biased, yet employs hypocritical subtlety in order to disguise its role as part of the international agenda that makes no distinction between civilians and a settler population willingly complicit in Israeli state violence.
Following its insensitive and macabre efforts to downplay the repercussions and atrocities of Operation Protective Edge, Israel has now attempted to ridicule the UN Human Rights Council report on last summer's aggression.
The report, which Israel pronounced as "morally flawed", has accused both Israel and Palestinian resistance groups of war crimes, contradicting Israel's "internal investigation" that justified every intentionally targeted civilian death as collateral damage and thus, bequeathing impunity to the state's false morality conjectures.
While drawing attention to state complicity with regard to war crimes committed by Israel, the report employs the same non-committal rhetoric that shifts evidence towards the realm of probability. "Directing attacks against civilians constitutes a violation of the principle of distinction and may amount to a war crime." Such statements indicate that the report's value will probably serve as some form of heightened awareness and confirmation of the massacre that took place last summer but fail to provide a foundation with which to hold Israel accountable for its premeditated actions.
A statement released by the Israeli Foreign Minister criticised the UNHRC report, stating it was "commissioned by a notoriously biased institution, given an obviously biased mandate." Additionally, the statement attempts to reinforce the internationally-adopted drivel that seeks to create a false dimension of morality and terror. Quoted in the Times of Israel, the Israeli Foreign Ministry statement reads: "It is regrettable that the report fails to recognise the profound difference between Israel's moral behaviour during Operation Protective Edge and the terror organisations it confronted."
So moral, in fact, that the report juxtaposes widespread destruction, displacement and murder committed by the Israeli army, against the "trauma" allegedly endured by Israeli settlers of siren sounds and fear of being "attacked at any moment by gunmen bursting out of the ground" – the latter with reference to the tunnel network utilised by Palestinian resistance and which was annihilated by Israel in its quest to prevent Palestinians from making legitimate use of their territory within historic Palestine.
Predictably, Israel deemed the report biased, despite its refusal to participate and cooperate with the commission during its investigations. Netanyahu has instead accused the UNHRC of slander – a predictable response that is well ingrained in Israel's international repertoire and also rendered evident in recent altercations with the organisation.
It is disconcerting, albeit expected, to observe that the UNHRC's use of language falls into the same confines of affirming war crimes yet at the same time allowing Israel to navigate the obscure parameters that still provide impunity. This is particularly evident in the report's recommendations to Israel, the Palestinian Authority, as well Palestinian resistance movements. Calling upon Israel to abide by international law when its very existence is an infringement of that law renders the recommendations ludicrous, allowing Israel the opportunity to colonise further territory as long as certain requirements and definitions are implemented.
Conversely, the UNHRC report expects Palestinians to relinquish their anti-colonial struggle – in other words, "to stop all rocket attacks and other actions that may spread terror among Israeli civilians." The UNHRC report is indeed biased, yet employs hypocritical subtlety in order to disguise its role as part of the international agenda that makes no distinction between civilians and a settler population willingly complicit in Israeli state violence.
UN likely to officially adopt report on Gaza war, sparking Israeli effort to remove the power of Arab majority voting bloc within the human rights council.
A new diplomatic front has been launched in Israel, meant to do away with the automatic Arab majority in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in light of an impending council vote regarding whether or not to adopt as official the findings of a UN report released Monday on 2014's Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
The report was ill-received in Israel, where officials said that the UNHRC is inherently slanted against Israel. UN investigators blamed both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes during the conflict, a claim that Hamas decried as false.
Foreign Ministry officials are expected a vote in favor of the report in the coming days, due to the voting bloc within the council that traditionally aligns with the wishes of Arab countries who are known to vote against Israel's interests. Behind the scene talks with key players in the UNHRC have already begun, but if adopted by the council the report will be passed onto the UN General Assembly, as occurred with the infamous Goldstone Report in wake of a previous Gaza conflict in 2009, or Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will be asked directly to monitor its implementation.
The diplomatic efforts to sway opinion in the UNHRC in Israel's favor will include a public propaganda campaign in the coming days, meant to spread Israel's view that IDF conduct during the war was "according to the highest international standards." This effort is expected to be led on social media. Meanwhile pro-Israeli groups are organizing a protest to take place outside of UN headquarters next Monday when the report will be discussed by the UNHRC in Geneva before the upcoming vote.
"There is no indictment of Israel here," said officials in the Foreign Ministry. "They are aware that they don't have enough information for an indictment. What's disturbing is that it puts Israel and Hamas on the same weighing scale. There's no doubt that this harms Israel's image." Another senior Israel official claimed that it was the policy of disengagement and refusal to cooperate with the investigation leading up to the report that saved the Jewish nation from a much worse outcome.
"They would have reached the same conclusion and maybe even worse if we had cooperated," said the source. "Their investigation does not cross the threshold into criminal investigation and therefore they did not discuss individuals. The entire report stands on chicken legs because they didn't have access to the field." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu replied to the UN report at a Likud meeting on Monday afternoon saying that the organization that calls itself the Human Rights Council, "does everything besides caring for human rights."
Education Minister Naftali Bennett also had harsh words following the report's release, saying, "This report has blood on its hands because it permits the murder of Jews". Bennett noted that the report "ties our soldiers' hands and prevents them from protecting the people of the south and the entire country."
A new diplomatic front has been launched in Israel, meant to do away with the automatic Arab majority in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in light of an impending council vote regarding whether or not to adopt as official the findings of a UN report released Monday on 2014's Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
The report was ill-received in Israel, where officials said that the UNHRC is inherently slanted against Israel. UN investigators blamed both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes during the conflict, a claim that Hamas decried as false.
Foreign Ministry officials are expected a vote in favor of the report in the coming days, due to the voting bloc within the council that traditionally aligns with the wishes of Arab countries who are known to vote against Israel's interests. Behind the scene talks with key players in the UNHRC have already begun, but if adopted by the council the report will be passed onto the UN General Assembly, as occurred with the infamous Goldstone Report in wake of a previous Gaza conflict in 2009, or Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will be asked directly to monitor its implementation.
The diplomatic efforts to sway opinion in the UNHRC in Israel's favor will include a public propaganda campaign in the coming days, meant to spread Israel's view that IDF conduct during the war was "according to the highest international standards." This effort is expected to be led on social media. Meanwhile pro-Israeli groups are organizing a protest to take place outside of UN headquarters next Monday when the report will be discussed by the UNHRC in Geneva before the upcoming vote.
"There is no indictment of Israel here," said officials in the Foreign Ministry. "They are aware that they don't have enough information for an indictment. What's disturbing is that it puts Israel and Hamas on the same weighing scale. There's no doubt that this harms Israel's image." Another senior Israel official claimed that it was the policy of disengagement and refusal to cooperate with the investigation leading up to the report that saved the Jewish nation from a much worse outcome.
"They would have reached the same conclusion and maybe even worse if we had cooperated," said the source. "Their investigation does not cross the threshold into criminal investigation and therefore they did not discuss individuals. The entire report stands on chicken legs because they didn't have access to the field." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu replied to the UN report at a Likud meeting on Monday afternoon saying that the organization that calls itself the Human Rights Council, "does everything besides caring for human rights."
Education Minister Naftali Bennett also had harsh words following the report's release, saying, "This report has blood on its hands because it permits the murder of Jews". Bennett noted that the report "ties our soldiers' hands and prevents them from protecting the people of the south and the entire country."
22 june 2015
Palestinians pray over the bodies of eight members of the al-Haj family, killed when Israel bombed their Khan Younis house on 10 July 2014. This was one of the attacks investigated by an independent UN body that found extensive evidence of Israeli war crimes during last summer’s assault on Gaza
There can be no surprise that the UN Human Rights Council’s independent investigation of Israel’s assault on Gaza last summer found evidence of massive and systematic war crimes.
Its report, published Monday in Geneva, says investigators were “able to gather substantial information pointing to serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law by Israel and by 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 investigation commission, Justice Mary McGowan Davis, told media, adding that “there is also ongoing fear in Israel among communities who come under regular threat.”
Despite the “balanced” language that is now the habitual refuge of international officials hoping to avoid false accusations of anti-Israel bias, the evidence shows that the scale and impact of Israeli violence dwarfs anything allegedly done by Palestinians.
Israel systematically targeted Palestinian residential buildings and infrastructure without any apparent military justification. The horror of what Israel did, detailed in the 183-page report, cannot be adequately summarized here.
In total, 2,251 Palestinians were killed, including 1,462 Palestinian civilians, among them 551 children, the report states. More than 11,000 Palestinians, including 3,540 women and 3,436 children, were injured with almost 10 percent suffering permanent disabilities.
Six civilians died in Israel and more than 60 Israeli soldiers died in fighting with the Palestinian resistance.
But a key finding is that the mass destruction and killing inflicted by Israel, often amounting to war crimes, “may have constituted military tactics reflective of a broader policy, approved at least tacitly by decision-makers at the highest levels of the Government of Israel.”
This finding provides an important basis for Palestinians to pursue Israeli leaders, not just their uniformed subordinates, and bring them to justice in international courts.
The report also confirms that Israel remains the occupying power in Gaza as far as international law is concerned, because it continues to exercise “effective control” over the territory. Israel is therefore subject to all the legal obligations of an occupying power to protect civilians there.
It also found a massive escalation of Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem in the weeks preceding and during the Gaza assault that was “overshadowed by the tragic events in Gaza.”
Israeli obstruction
The commission was made up of two independent experts: former New York Supreme Court Justice Mary McGowan Davis, who chaired it, and Senegal’s Doudou Diène, a former UN special rapporteur on racism.
The previous chair, Canadian international law expert William Schabas, resigned from the commission in February under relentless Israeli criticism and pressure.
Israel’s concern about the make up of the committee was not matched by a willingness to cooperate with its work. Israel refused to respond to any requests for information and barred the investigators from traveling to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip or to present-day Israel.
The Egyptian military regime also colluded with Israel by blocking investigators entering Gaza through the Rafah crossing.
Nonetheless, the investigators and their staff conducted hundreds of interviews with victims and witnesses, received hundreds of written submissions and obtained large amounts of data from other UN bodies. They also consulted satellite imagery, independent military experts, government documents and statements and evidence gathered by independent organizations.
Deliberate attacks on civilians
Israel carried out more than 6,000 airstrikes on Gaza last summer, the report states, including “targeted attacks on residential and other buildings.”
As a result of these attacks, 142 Palestinians families “had three or more members killed in the same incident owing to the destruction of residential buildings,” for a total of at least 742 deaths, according to UN figures.
The report examines in detail 15 attacks on residential buildings in which a total of 216 people were killed, including 115 children and 50 women. Israel refused to provide any information on what made these buildings alleged military targets.
Killed while they slept
In one of the incidents, at 2 am on 10 July, Israel attacked the house of Mahmoud al-Haj in Khan Younis. All eight members of the family were killed, including two children and three women. The bomb completely destroyed the house and damaged surrounding homes injuring 20 more people, mostly women and children.
In another attack, on the afternoon of 21 July, Israeli forces fired two missiles at the five-story building of the al-Qassas family, killing nine people, including six children and three women, one of them pregnant. Another 10 people, mostly children and one a baby, were injured.
The investigators could find no information to suggest “that there was a military target in the al-Qassas building.”
This was frequently the case. “In many of the cases examined by the commission, as well as in incidents reported by local and international organizations,” the report states, “there is little or no information as to how residential buildings, which are prima facie civilian objects immune from attack, came to be regarded as legitimate military objectives.”
Israeli justification debunked
The report does find that “indications of possible military objectives emerged in nine of the 15 cases” of attacks on residential buildings that it examines.
But it says that “the potential targets of the attack seem to have been mostly individuals who were or who could have been present in the building that was struck, indicating that one or several individuals were the likely target and not the building itself.”
Here, the report refutes one of the major Israeli justifications for attacking homes: that someone associated with an armed group lives in one. However, the report “underlines that the mere fact of being a member of the political wing of Hamas or any other organization in Gaza, or working for the authorities … is not sufficient in and of itself to render a person a legitimate military target.”
It adds that “under international humanitarian law, a member of an armed group has to have a continuous combat function to constitute a legitimate military target.”
Even if the person were a “legitimate military target,” Israel’s method of attacking homes is disrproportionate, indiscriminate and illegal.
The investigators also consulted military experts who found that the types of US-supplied bombs Israel dropped – such as the GBU-32/MK-82 1,000 lb bomb or the GBU-31/MK-84 2,000 lb bomb – have such a wide impact that their use amounted to indiscriminate attacks.
During the attack, Israel often boasted about its use of a smaller “warning missile” or “knock on the roof” to tell residents to get out of a building minutes before a much bigger explosion. But the report concludes “that the ‘roof-knocking’ technique is not effective” and there were many instances in which civilians were killed despite such warnings.
Destruction of Shujaiya
On 19 and 20 July, Israel carried out a massive artillery bombardment of the Shujaiya neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, killing at least 55 people, including 19 children and 14 women.
As The Electronic Intifada reported last year, the type of weapons used – predominantly heavy artillery and mortars – means the attack could not but have been indiscriminate.
Israel also used over 100 one-ton bombs in the attack which destroyed 670 buildings and damaged another 1,200.
The UN report now confirms that “these methods and means employed by the [Israeli army] could not, in such a small and densely populated area, be directed at a specific military target and could not adequately distinguish between civilians and civilian objects and military objectives as required by [international humanitarian law].”
“Therefore,” the report concludes, “there are strong indications that the IDF’s [Israeli army] Shujaiya operation on 19 and 20 July was conducted in violation of the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks and may amount to a war crime.”
Human shields
Similarly, the report examines and finds evidence of war crimes during Israel’s siege and shelling of the village of Khuzaa between 20 July and 1 August and its massive bombardment of the southern city of Rafah after one of its soldiers was reported captured on 1 August.
Israel also used human shields in Khuzaa, a farming village in east central Gaza. On 23 July, for instance, 17-year-old Ahmed Abu Reda was abducted by Israeli soldiers from his family as they tried to flee the area.
He was kept hostage for five days during which he was interrogated and, according to his father, forced to undertake “risky tasks such as opening doors, inspecting rooms, switching the lights on and off to test whether secret explosives were being connected to the light switches, open fridges and other devices that may have detonated explosions.”
It concludes that “there are strong indications that elements of the IDF operation in Khuzaa may qualify as direct attacks against civilians or civilian objects and may thus amount to a war crime.”
In Rafah, Israel implemented the “Hannibal Directive,” a procedure which calls for massive fire to prevent a soldier being captured even if it kills the soldier.
The report cites Israel’s “military culture” resulting from this and other policies as “a contributing factor for the unleashing of massive firepower on Rafah, in total disregard for its impact on the civilian population.”
It also finds that Israeli commanders continued the attack for hours even when they must have known about the catastrophic death and injury they were causing to civilians – in itself a potential war crime.
Accusations against Palestinians
Any Israeli claim that the investigation is biased is refuted by the accusations the report levels against Palestinian resistance groups.
It says the investigators have “serious concerns with regard to the inherently indiscriminate nature of most of the projectiles directed towards Israel by these groups and to the targeting of Israeli civilians, which violate international humanitarian law and may amount to a war crime.”
It also condemns the extrajudicial executions by Hamas of two dozen Palestinians accused of collaborating with the enemy as a war crime. These executions had already been condemned by Palestinian and international human rights organizations.
Yet in many of the specific instances examined by the committee, especially those involving mortar fire at Israeli targets near the Gaza boundary, the investigators found that Palestinians were aiming at Israeli military targets that were often deliberately placed close to civilian communities.
Military bases near civilians
The report notes “a number of military objectives are located in various parts of Israel, in some cases in the immediate vicinity of built up areas such as the Hatzor airbase, or in the case of the IDF Headquarters, in the midst of a densely populated area.”
It adds that during the attack on Gaza, “the number of IDF positions in the south of Israel around Gaza, sometimes close to civilian communities, was higher than usual.”
“Mortar fire by the Palestinian armed groups appears to have often been aimed at specific targets and is more precise than the rockets in the armed groups’ arsenal,” the report states.
On 22 August 2014, four-year-old Daniel Tregerman, the only Israeli child fatality in the conflict, was killed by a mortar shell in his home at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, two kilometers from the Gaza boundary.
The report notes that this too was an area of intense military activity.
“Based on the information available,” the report states, “the commission cannot exclude that the intended target of the tragic attack of 22 August on Kibbutz Nahal Oz was the IDF Chief of Staff.”
Israeli claims hard to verify
The report acknowledges that in many cases, Palestinian armed groups warned Israeli civilians, especially in the areas near Gaza, and when they fired rockets towards Ben Gurion airport, of impending attacks.
The investigators say they asked Israel for “detailed information” on “where the rockets and mortars fired by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza actually landed so as to make a more detailed assessment of the proportion of cases in which they were directed at densely populated areas in Israel.”
But Israel – which is always eager to tell global media about how its civilians are the main targets of Palestinian groups – refused, making it “difficult for the commission to determine the extent to which attacks [were] directed at the civilian population in Israel.”
Legitimate military targets
As for tunnels dug from Gaza into present-day Israel, the report is blunt: “during the period under examination, the tunnels were only used to conduct attacks directed at IDF positions in Israel in the vicinity of the Green Line, which are legitimate military targets.”
The report concedes, however, that “in the vast majority of individual rocket and mortar attacks, the commission does not have information on the intended targets, but notes that Palestinian armed groups announced that they intended to attack population centers in Israel and declared responsibility for launches directed at different places in Israel.”
It also notes that the “majority of projectiles fired by Palestinian armed groups consisted of rockets that at best were equipped with only rudimentary guidance systems and in the vast majority of cases had none at all.”
It acknowledges that the “limitations of the military arsenals of Palestinian armed groups was advanced as a reason for their failure to attack precisely military targets.”
“Security experts have noted that while the al-Qassam Brigades [the military wing of Hamas] may have targeted civilians in the past as part of its military strategy, in 2014 its declared official policy was ‘to focus on military or semi-military targets and to avoid other targets, especially civilians,’” the report observes.
But it notes that under the relevant international law, the “military capacity of the parties to a conflict is irrelevant to their obligation to respect the prohibition against indiscriminate attacks.”
While this may be the case, what it indicates is that if Palestinians exercising a legitimate right to resistance and self-defense were allowed access to more precise weapons, most of the activities designated as possible war crimes in the report would probably not have occurred.
This is not true, however, in the case of Israel, which boasts about its very precise weapons and yet inflicted massive amounts of death, injury and destruction on civilians as a result of its policy of targeting them.
Instead, Palestinian resistance groups are designated as “terrorists” and barred from obtaining more accurate weapons, while the United States, European Union and other governments continue to supply Israel’s massive arsenal.
The report, if anything, displays a distinct anti-Palestinian bias, using the word “resistance” only between quotation marks as if the right to resist belligerent military occupation is not a well-recognized right in international law.
Analysis
The report looks at the events in Palestine through the strict lens of international humanitarian and human rights law. In doing so it finds evidence that both Palestinians and Israelis committed war crimes and other violations.
But the crimes allegedly committed by Israel are massive compared to anything allegedly done by Palestinians.
There can also be no moral equivalence between the legitimate self-defense and resistance of a people under occupation and the aggression of an occupier whose aim is to subject millions of people to its unopposed military tyranny.
It is also apparent that most, though not all, of the transgressions alleged against Palestinians are an artifact of the inferior and unguided weapons, often locally made in Gaza, that are available to resistance groups.
But the approach of the so-called “international community” has been to deny Palestinians the means to resist against Israeli occupation forces and then to condemn them for using what they have.
Despite this, the fact remains that while Israel mostly killed civilians, Palestinians mostly killed Israeli soldiers. Indeed, 65 percent of those killed by Israel were civilians, while 90 percent of those killed by Palestinians were armed combatant soldiers.
Nothing is more legitimate than Palestinian resistance and nothing is more illegitimate than Israeli occupation. And yet it is to Israel that weapons of massive destruction continue to flow, often from the countries that preach loudest about human rights and international law.
Means of resistance
It is clear that many governments and international organizations tacitly reject the Palestinian right to resist militarily even if they do not say so openly.
Many supporters of Palestinian rights and many Palestinians prefer nonviolence, believing that in the long run it will make a just peace more feasible.
If that is the case, then everyone must be proactive in offering support for nonviolent alternatives that can help redress the balance of power between a tenacious belligerent occupier and its victims.
Boycott, divestment and sanctions, for instance, must be recognized and promoted by the so-called international community as a legitimate means of resistance supplementing other forms of legitimate resistance to colonial occupation.
As for Israel, its strategy with this investigation as in others, was to try to obstruct it and then to whine that it is unfair and biased. If Israel is so certain that its actions were legal and correct, it should have nothing to hide.
Given the consequences if the report’s call for accountability were to be implemented, it is no surprise that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its staunch ally, the US administration of President Barack Obama, have attacked and delegitimized the UN investigation from the very start.
It remains to be seen if others will have the courage to demand accountability and ensure this report is not buried like the Goldstone report into Israel’s 2008-2009 massacre in Gaza.
Without such accountability, another Israeli massacre in Gaza is only a matter of time.
There can be no surprise that the UN Human Rights Council’s independent investigation of Israel’s assault on Gaza last summer found evidence of massive and systematic war crimes.
Its report, published Monday in Geneva, says investigators were “able to gather substantial information pointing to serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law by Israel and by 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 investigation commission, Justice Mary McGowan Davis, told media, adding that “there is also ongoing fear in Israel among communities who come under regular threat.”
Despite the “balanced” language that is now the habitual refuge of international officials hoping to avoid false accusations of anti-Israel bias, the evidence shows that the scale and impact of Israeli violence dwarfs anything allegedly done by Palestinians.
Israel systematically targeted Palestinian residential buildings and infrastructure without any apparent military justification. The horror of what Israel did, detailed in the 183-page report, cannot be adequately summarized here.
In total, 2,251 Palestinians were killed, including 1,462 Palestinian civilians, among them 551 children, the report states. More than 11,000 Palestinians, including 3,540 women and 3,436 children, were injured with almost 10 percent suffering permanent disabilities.
Six civilians died in Israel and more than 60 Israeli soldiers died in fighting with the Palestinian resistance.
But a key finding is that the mass destruction and killing inflicted by Israel, often amounting to war crimes, “may have constituted military tactics reflective of a broader policy, approved at least tacitly by decision-makers at the highest levels of the Government of Israel.”
This finding provides an important basis for Palestinians to pursue Israeli leaders, not just their uniformed subordinates, and bring them to justice in international courts.
The report also confirms that Israel remains the occupying power in Gaza as far as international law is concerned, because it continues to exercise “effective control” over the territory. Israel is therefore subject to all the legal obligations of an occupying power to protect civilians there.
It also found a massive escalation of Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem in the weeks preceding and during the Gaza assault that was “overshadowed by the tragic events in Gaza.”
Israeli obstruction
The commission was made up of two independent experts: former New York Supreme Court Justice Mary McGowan Davis, who chaired it, and Senegal’s Doudou Diène, a former UN special rapporteur on racism.
The previous chair, Canadian international law expert William Schabas, resigned from the commission in February under relentless Israeli criticism and pressure.
Israel’s concern about the make up of the committee was not matched by a willingness to cooperate with its work. Israel refused to respond to any requests for information and barred the investigators from traveling to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip or to present-day Israel.
The Egyptian military regime also colluded with Israel by blocking investigators entering Gaza through the Rafah crossing.
Nonetheless, the investigators and their staff conducted hundreds of interviews with victims and witnesses, received hundreds of written submissions and obtained large amounts of data from other UN bodies. They also consulted satellite imagery, independent military experts, government documents and statements and evidence gathered by independent organizations.
Deliberate attacks on civilians
Israel carried out more than 6,000 airstrikes on Gaza last summer, the report states, including “targeted attacks on residential and other buildings.”
As a result of these attacks, 142 Palestinians families “had three or more members killed in the same incident owing to the destruction of residential buildings,” for a total of at least 742 deaths, according to UN figures.
The report examines in detail 15 attacks on residential buildings in which a total of 216 people were killed, including 115 children and 50 women. Israel refused to provide any information on what made these buildings alleged military targets.
Killed while they slept
In one of the incidents, at 2 am on 10 July, Israel attacked the house of Mahmoud al-Haj in Khan Younis. All eight members of the family were killed, including two children and three women. The bomb completely destroyed the house and damaged surrounding homes injuring 20 more people, mostly women and children.
In another attack, on the afternoon of 21 July, Israeli forces fired two missiles at the five-story building of the al-Qassas family, killing nine people, including six children and three women, one of them pregnant. Another 10 people, mostly children and one a baby, were injured.
The investigators could find no information to suggest “that there was a military target in the al-Qassas building.”
This was frequently the case. “In many of the cases examined by the commission, as well as in incidents reported by local and international organizations,” the report states, “there is little or no information as to how residential buildings, which are prima facie civilian objects immune from attack, came to be regarded as legitimate military objectives.”
Israeli justification debunked
The report does find that “indications of possible military objectives emerged in nine of the 15 cases” of attacks on residential buildings that it examines.
But it says that “the potential targets of the attack seem to have been mostly individuals who were or who could have been present in the building that was struck, indicating that one or several individuals were the likely target and not the building itself.”
Here, the report refutes one of the major Israeli justifications for attacking homes: that someone associated with an armed group lives in one. However, the report “underlines that the mere fact of being a member of the political wing of Hamas or any other organization in Gaza, or working for the authorities … is not sufficient in and of itself to render a person a legitimate military target.”
It adds that “under international humanitarian law, a member of an armed group has to have a continuous combat function to constitute a legitimate military target.”
Even if the person were a “legitimate military target,” Israel’s method of attacking homes is disrproportionate, indiscriminate and illegal.
The investigators also consulted military experts who found that the types of US-supplied bombs Israel dropped – such as the GBU-32/MK-82 1,000 lb bomb or the GBU-31/MK-84 2,000 lb bomb – have such a wide impact that their use amounted to indiscriminate attacks.
During the attack, Israel often boasted about its use of a smaller “warning missile” or “knock on the roof” to tell residents to get out of a building minutes before a much bigger explosion. But the report concludes “that the ‘roof-knocking’ technique is not effective” and there were many instances in which civilians were killed despite such warnings.
Destruction of Shujaiya
On 19 and 20 July, Israel carried out a massive artillery bombardment of the Shujaiya neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, killing at least 55 people, including 19 children and 14 women.
As The Electronic Intifada reported last year, the type of weapons used – predominantly heavy artillery and mortars – means the attack could not but have been indiscriminate.
Israel also used over 100 one-ton bombs in the attack which destroyed 670 buildings and damaged another 1,200.
The UN report now confirms that “these methods and means employed by the [Israeli army] could not, in such a small and densely populated area, be directed at a specific military target and could not adequately distinguish between civilians and civilian objects and military objectives as required by [international humanitarian law].”
“Therefore,” the report concludes, “there are strong indications that the IDF’s [Israeli army] Shujaiya operation on 19 and 20 July was conducted in violation of the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks and may amount to a war crime.”
Human shields
Similarly, the report examines and finds evidence of war crimes during Israel’s siege and shelling of the village of Khuzaa between 20 July and 1 August and its massive bombardment of the southern city of Rafah after one of its soldiers was reported captured on 1 August.
Israel also used human shields in Khuzaa, a farming village in east central Gaza. On 23 July, for instance, 17-year-old Ahmed Abu Reda was abducted by Israeli soldiers from his family as they tried to flee the area.
He was kept hostage for five days during which he was interrogated and, according to his father, forced to undertake “risky tasks such as opening doors, inspecting rooms, switching the lights on and off to test whether secret explosives were being connected to the light switches, open fridges and other devices that may have detonated explosions.”
It concludes that “there are strong indications that elements of the IDF operation in Khuzaa may qualify as direct attacks against civilians or civilian objects and may thus amount to a war crime.”
In Rafah, Israel implemented the “Hannibal Directive,” a procedure which calls for massive fire to prevent a soldier being captured even if it kills the soldier.
The report cites Israel’s “military culture” resulting from this and other policies as “a contributing factor for the unleashing of massive firepower on Rafah, in total disregard for its impact on the civilian population.”
It also finds that Israeli commanders continued the attack for hours even when they must have known about the catastrophic death and injury they were causing to civilians – in itself a potential war crime.
Accusations against Palestinians
Any Israeli claim that the investigation is biased is refuted by the accusations the report levels against Palestinian resistance groups.
It says the investigators have “serious concerns with regard to the inherently indiscriminate nature of most of the projectiles directed towards Israel by these groups and to the targeting of Israeli civilians, which violate international humanitarian law and may amount to a war crime.”
It also condemns the extrajudicial executions by Hamas of two dozen Palestinians accused of collaborating with the enemy as a war crime. These executions had already been condemned by Palestinian and international human rights organizations.
Yet in many of the specific instances examined by the committee, especially those involving mortar fire at Israeli targets near the Gaza boundary, the investigators found that Palestinians were aiming at Israeli military targets that were often deliberately placed close to civilian communities.
Military bases near civilians
The report notes “a number of military objectives are located in various parts of Israel, in some cases in the immediate vicinity of built up areas such as the Hatzor airbase, or in the case of the IDF Headquarters, in the midst of a densely populated area.”
It adds that during the attack on Gaza, “the number of IDF positions in the south of Israel around Gaza, sometimes close to civilian communities, was higher than usual.”
“Mortar fire by the Palestinian armed groups appears to have often been aimed at specific targets and is more precise than the rockets in the armed groups’ arsenal,” the report states.
On 22 August 2014, four-year-old Daniel Tregerman, the only Israeli child fatality in the conflict, was killed by a mortar shell in his home at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, two kilometers from the Gaza boundary.
The report notes that this too was an area of intense military activity.
“Based on the information available,” the report states, “the commission cannot exclude that the intended target of the tragic attack of 22 August on Kibbutz Nahal Oz was the IDF Chief of Staff.”
Israeli claims hard to verify
The report acknowledges that in many cases, Palestinian armed groups warned Israeli civilians, especially in the areas near Gaza, and when they fired rockets towards Ben Gurion airport, of impending attacks.
The investigators say they asked Israel for “detailed information” on “where the rockets and mortars fired by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza actually landed so as to make a more detailed assessment of the proportion of cases in which they were directed at densely populated areas in Israel.”
But Israel – which is always eager to tell global media about how its civilians are the main targets of Palestinian groups – refused, making it “difficult for the commission to determine the extent to which attacks [were] directed at the civilian population in Israel.”
Legitimate military targets
As for tunnels dug from Gaza into present-day Israel, the report is blunt: “during the period under examination, the tunnels were only used to conduct attacks directed at IDF positions in Israel in the vicinity of the Green Line, which are legitimate military targets.”
The report concedes, however, that “in the vast majority of individual rocket and mortar attacks, the commission does not have information on the intended targets, but notes that Palestinian armed groups announced that they intended to attack population centers in Israel and declared responsibility for launches directed at different places in Israel.”
It also notes that the “majority of projectiles fired by Palestinian armed groups consisted of rockets that at best were equipped with only rudimentary guidance systems and in the vast majority of cases had none at all.”
It acknowledges that the “limitations of the military arsenals of Palestinian armed groups was advanced as a reason for their failure to attack precisely military targets.”
“Security experts have noted that while the al-Qassam Brigades [the military wing of Hamas] may have targeted civilians in the past as part of its military strategy, in 2014 its declared official policy was ‘to focus on military or semi-military targets and to avoid other targets, especially civilians,’” the report observes.
But it notes that under the relevant international law, the “military capacity of the parties to a conflict is irrelevant to their obligation to respect the prohibition against indiscriminate attacks.”
While this may be the case, what it indicates is that if Palestinians exercising a legitimate right to resistance and self-defense were allowed access to more precise weapons, most of the activities designated as possible war crimes in the report would probably not have occurred.
This is not true, however, in the case of Israel, which boasts about its very precise weapons and yet inflicted massive amounts of death, injury and destruction on civilians as a result of its policy of targeting them.
Instead, Palestinian resistance groups are designated as “terrorists” and barred from obtaining more accurate weapons, while the United States, European Union and other governments continue to supply Israel’s massive arsenal.
The report, if anything, displays a distinct anti-Palestinian bias, using the word “resistance” only between quotation marks as if the right to resist belligerent military occupation is not a well-recognized right in international law.
Analysis
The report looks at the events in Palestine through the strict lens of international humanitarian and human rights law. In doing so it finds evidence that both Palestinians and Israelis committed war crimes and other violations.
But the crimes allegedly committed by Israel are massive compared to anything allegedly done by Palestinians.
There can also be no moral equivalence between the legitimate self-defense and resistance of a people under occupation and the aggression of an occupier whose aim is to subject millions of people to its unopposed military tyranny.
It is also apparent that most, though not all, of the transgressions alleged against Palestinians are an artifact of the inferior and unguided weapons, often locally made in Gaza, that are available to resistance groups.
But the approach of the so-called “international community” has been to deny Palestinians the means to resist against Israeli occupation forces and then to condemn them for using what they have.
Despite this, the fact remains that while Israel mostly killed civilians, Palestinians mostly killed Israeli soldiers. Indeed, 65 percent of those killed by Israel were civilians, while 90 percent of those killed by Palestinians were armed combatant soldiers.
Nothing is more legitimate than Palestinian resistance and nothing is more illegitimate than Israeli occupation. And yet it is to Israel that weapons of massive destruction continue to flow, often from the countries that preach loudest about human rights and international law.
Means of resistance
It is clear that many governments and international organizations tacitly reject the Palestinian right to resist militarily even if they do not say so openly.
Many supporters of Palestinian rights and many Palestinians prefer nonviolence, believing that in the long run it will make a just peace more feasible.
If that is the case, then everyone must be proactive in offering support for nonviolent alternatives that can help redress the balance of power between a tenacious belligerent occupier and its victims.
Boycott, divestment and sanctions, for instance, must be recognized and promoted by the so-called international community as a legitimate means of resistance supplementing other forms of legitimate resistance to colonial occupation.
As for Israel, its strategy with this investigation as in others, was to try to obstruct it and then to whine that it is unfair and biased. If Israel is so certain that its actions were legal and correct, it should have nothing to hide.
Given the consequences if the report’s call for accountability were to be implemented, it is no surprise that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its staunch ally, the US administration of President Barack Obama, have attacked and delegitimized the UN investigation from the very start.
It remains to be seen if others will have the courage to demand accountability and ensure this report is not buried like the Goldstone report into Israel’s 2008-2009 massacre in Gaza.
Without such accountability, another Israeli massacre in Gaza is only a matter of time.
Home of Palestinian family that was massacred in their home
A long-anticipated United Nations Report on the 51-day Israeli invasion of Gaza in the summer of 2014 was released on Monday. The report faulted the Israeli military with deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, which resulted in “unprecedented devastation” and the deaths of 2,251 Palestinians.
The report notes that during the 51-day Israeli invasion, 6,000 airstrikes and approximately 50,000 tank and artillery shells were fired by Israel into Gaza, killing 1,462 Palestinian civilians, one third of them children. The report estimates that 65% of the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces were civilians.
In addition, the report placed the blame for the civilian deaths squarely on the Israeli government, which had knowledge of the increasing toll of their invasion on civilians, but chose not to change course in any way and continued with the practice of massive bombardment on civilian areas.
For that reason, the report raises questions about potential violations of international humanitarian law by these officials, which may amount to war crimes
Israeli authorities refused to cooperate with the UN investigation, which was led by a former justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Mary McGowan Davis.
The Israeli government issued its own report last week, in an attempt to preempt the expected UN Report, placing the blame for civilian deaths on the Hamas party in Gaza. The Israeli government’s report claimed, without evidence, that Palestinian fighters used civilians as human shields.
The only evidence of the use of human shields uncovered during the investigation, however, found that Israeli forces used Palestinian civilians as human shields.
The report, which based its findings on investigations on the ground, interviews with witnesses, and examination of physical evidence, found that Israeli forces conducted numerous airstrikes on homes that resulted in the deaths of entire families.
The commission also criticized Israel’s decision to “level entire neighborhoods” and the use of the so-called “Hannibal directive”, which called for indiscriminate attacks when a soldier was believed to have been captured, resulting in the death of the soldier as well as numerous Palestinian fighters and civilians.
The report was also critical of the indiscriminate nature of Palestinian fighters’ homemade shells, which were fired blindly across the border with Israel because they contain no aiming mechanism.
A long-anticipated United Nations Report on the 51-day Israeli invasion of Gaza in the summer of 2014 was released on Monday. The report faulted the Israeli military with deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, which resulted in “unprecedented devastation” and the deaths of 2,251 Palestinians.
The report notes that during the 51-day Israeli invasion, 6,000 airstrikes and approximately 50,000 tank and artillery shells were fired by Israel into Gaza, killing 1,462 Palestinian civilians, one third of them children. The report estimates that 65% of the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces were civilians.
In addition, the report placed the blame for the civilian deaths squarely on the Israeli government, which had knowledge of the increasing toll of their invasion on civilians, but chose not to change course in any way and continued with the practice of massive bombardment on civilian areas.
For that reason, the report raises questions about potential violations of international humanitarian law by these officials, which may amount to war crimes
Israeli authorities refused to cooperate with the UN investigation, which was led by a former justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Mary McGowan Davis.
The Israeli government issued its own report last week, in an attempt to preempt the expected UN Report, placing the blame for civilian deaths on the Hamas party in Gaza. The Israeli government’s report claimed, without evidence, that Palestinian fighters used civilians as human shields.
The only evidence of the use of human shields uncovered during the investigation, however, found that Israeli forces used Palestinian civilians as human shields.
The report, which based its findings on investigations on the ground, interviews with witnesses, and examination of physical evidence, found that Israeli forces conducted numerous airstrikes on homes that resulted in the deaths of entire families.
The commission also criticized Israel’s decision to “level entire neighborhoods” and the use of the so-called “Hannibal directive”, which called for indiscriminate attacks when a soldier was believed to have been captured, resulting in the death of the soldier as well as numerous Palestinian fighters and civilians.
The report was also critical of the indiscriminate nature of Palestinian fighters’ homemade shells, which were fired blindly across the border with Israel because they contain no aiming mechanism.
The United Nations investigators said on Monday that Israel, alongside Palestinian militant groups committed grave abuses of international humanitarian law during the 2014 Gaza attack that may amount to war crimes.
In a report after a year-long inquiry, they called on Israel to explain its “targeting decisions” to allow independent assessment of its attacks on the Gaza Strip, where they said 1,462 civilians were killed and thousands of homes destroyed, Reuters news agency reports.
The independent investigators, led by American Mary McGowan Davis, also condemned what they found were executions of alleged Palestinian “collaborators” with Israel by militants in Gaza, saying these killings appeared to constitute war crimes.
A ceasefire last August ended 50 days of fighting between Gaza militants and Israel in which health officials said more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed. Israel put the number of its dead at 67 soldiers and six civilians.
Israeli air strikes and shelling hammered the densely-populated enclave dominated by the Islamist Hamas movement, causing widespread destruction of homes and schools. For their part, Gaza militants fired thousands of rockets and mortar bombs into Israel.
Both sides have denied violating the laws of war in the conflict.
“The commission was able to gather substantial information pointing to serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law by Israel and by Palestinian armed groups. In some cases, these violations may amount to war crimes,” the United Nations report said according to Reuters.
Israel last week, in response to the announcement that the UN will investigate war crimes in Gaza, issued its own report which was prepared by Israel’s Foreign and Justice Ministries in collaboration with the military and the National Security Council.
Spokesman Bseiso criticized the report saying “Israel’s decision to deny having targeted civilians in Gaza is the logical extension of what it did in the Gaza Strip.”
Bseiso said the one-sided report will not be accepted by Palestine. Instead, the authorities are awaiting the results of the upcoming U.N. Human Rights Council report on June 29.
UN report calls for international investigation into alleged Israel, Hamas war crimes
UNHRC commission determines one third of Gaza dead during Protective Edge were children, while noting effect 'indiscriminate rocket fire' had on Israeli civilians.
The United Nation's international investigation commission on Monday accused both Israel and the Palestinian terror organizations in the Gaza Strip of grave abuses of international humanitarian law during Operation Protective Edge last summer that may amount to war crimes in a report dismissed by Israel as "biased."
The commission, led by former judge Mary McGowan Davis, called on all sides to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has opened a separate preliminary investigation.
"The most that we can hope for out of this long and arduous process of inquiry is that we will push the ball of justice a little further down the field," McGowan Davis told a news conference at the UN Human Rights Commission headquarters in Geneva on Monday.
The war started July 8, 2014, after the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, as well as the subsequent kidnapping and burning alive of a Palestinian teenager in an apparent revenge attack. Israel responded to the teens' kidnapping by arresting hundreds of Hamas members in raids in the West Bank, prompting militant groups in Gaza to step up their rocket attacks.
A ceasefire last August ended 50 days of fighting between Gaza militants and Israel in which health officials said more than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed. Israel put the number of its dead at 67 soldiers and six civilians.
Israeli air strikes and shelling hammered the densely-populated Gaza Strip dominated by the Islamist Hamas movement, causing widespread destruction of homes and schools.
Hamas and other militant groups launched thousands of rockets and mortar bombs out of the enclave into Israel.
"The (UN) commission was able to gather substantial information pointing to serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law by Israel and by Palestinian armed groups. In some cases, these violations may amount to war crimes," the independent investigators said in a report issued on Monday following a year-long inquiry.
“The extent of the devastation and human suffering in Gaza was unprecedented and will impact generations to come," McGowan Davis said.
Buildings turned into piles of dust
Palestinians have said that the IDF violated the rules of war, which include giving adequate warning to civilians, using proportionate force and distinguishing between civilians and combatants. They have pointed to the high civilian casualty count as evidence.
Israel claims that Hamas is responsible for the civilian casualties because it used Gaza's residents as "human shields" by firing rockets from residential areas and operating in schools, hospitals and mosques. It also notes that Hamas' rockets and mortar shells were aimed at Israeli population centers.
The report states that the summer 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. During the 50-day operation, 1,462 Palestinian civilians were killed, a third of them children, commission members claimed.
The bombings of residential buildings had especially dire consequences, wiping out entire families, with 551 children killed, a choked-up McGowan Davis told reporters in Geneva.
Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed in their homes, mainly women and children, the report notes. Witnesses and survivors of these bombings described airstrikes that turned houses into piles of dust and ash in mere seconds.
The report quotes a member of the A-Najar family, 19 members of which were killed in an airstrike in Khan Younis on June, 26. "I woke up at about six or so, in the hospital, and I later learned that my sister, my mother and my children had all died," he said. "We all died that day, even those who survived."
At least 142 families lost three or more members in attacks on residential buildings during the war, resulting in 742 deaths.
"There was an explosion about every 10 seconds," said a witness from Rafah during an intensive IDF bombardment on August 1, after fears emerged that a soldier was kidnapped.
McGowan Davis states in the report that when an Israeli soldier's life is on the line, it seems that rules are ignored.
In a report after a year-long inquiry, they called on Israel to explain its “targeting decisions” to allow independent assessment of its attacks on the Gaza Strip, where they said 1,462 civilians were killed and thousands of homes destroyed, Reuters news agency reports.
The independent investigators, led by American Mary McGowan Davis, also condemned what they found were executions of alleged Palestinian “collaborators” with Israel by militants in Gaza, saying these killings appeared to constitute war crimes.
A ceasefire last August ended 50 days of fighting between Gaza militants and Israel in which health officials said more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed. Israel put the number of its dead at 67 soldiers and six civilians.
Israeli air strikes and shelling hammered the densely-populated enclave dominated by the Islamist Hamas movement, causing widespread destruction of homes and schools. For their part, Gaza militants fired thousands of rockets and mortar bombs into Israel.
Both sides have denied violating the laws of war in the conflict.
“The commission was able to gather substantial information pointing to serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law by Israel and by Palestinian armed groups. In some cases, these violations may amount to war crimes,” the United Nations report said according to Reuters.
Israel last week, in response to the announcement that the UN will investigate war crimes in Gaza, issued its own report which was prepared by Israel’s Foreign and Justice Ministries in collaboration with the military and the National Security Council.
Spokesman Bseiso criticized the report saying “Israel’s decision to deny having targeted civilians in Gaza is the logical extension of what it did in the Gaza Strip.”
Bseiso said the one-sided report will not be accepted by Palestine. Instead, the authorities are awaiting the results of the upcoming U.N. Human Rights Council report on June 29.
UN report calls for international investigation into alleged Israel, Hamas war crimes
UNHRC commission determines one third of Gaza dead during Protective Edge were children, while noting effect 'indiscriminate rocket fire' had on Israeli civilians.
The United Nation's international investigation commission on Monday accused both Israel and the Palestinian terror organizations in the Gaza Strip of grave abuses of international humanitarian law during Operation Protective Edge last summer that may amount to war crimes in a report dismissed by Israel as "biased."
The commission, led by former judge Mary McGowan Davis, called on all sides to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has opened a separate preliminary investigation.
"The most that we can hope for out of this long and arduous process of inquiry is that we will push the ball of justice a little further down the field," McGowan Davis told a news conference at the UN Human Rights Commission headquarters in Geneva on Monday.
The war started July 8, 2014, after the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, as well as the subsequent kidnapping and burning alive of a Palestinian teenager in an apparent revenge attack. Israel responded to the teens' kidnapping by arresting hundreds of Hamas members in raids in the West Bank, prompting militant groups in Gaza to step up their rocket attacks.
A ceasefire last August ended 50 days of fighting between Gaza militants and Israel in which health officials said more than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed. Israel put the number of its dead at 67 soldiers and six civilians.
Israeli air strikes and shelling hammered the densely-populated Gaza Strip dominated by the Islamist Hamas movement, causing widespread destruction of homes and schools.
Hamas and other militant groups launched thousands of rockets and mortar bombs out of the enclave into Israel.
"The (UN) commission was able to gather substantial information pointing to serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law by Israel and by Palestinian armed groups. In some cases, these violations may amount to war crimes," the independent investigators said in a report issued on Monday following a year-long inquiry.
“The extent of the devastation and human suffering in Gaza was unprecedented and will impact generations to come," McGowan Davis said.
Buildings turned into piles of dust
Palestinians have said that the IDF violated the rules of war, which include giving adequate warning to civilians, using proportionate force and distinguishing between civilians and combatants. They have pointed to the high civilian casualty count as evidence.
Israel claims that Hamas is responsible for the civilian casualties because it used Gaza's residents as "human shields" by firing rockets from residential areas and operating in schools, hospitals and mosques. It also notes that Hamas' rockets and mortar shells were aimed at Israeli population centers.
The report states that the summer 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. During the 50-day operation, 1,462 Palestinian civilians were killed, a third of them children, commission members claimed.
The bombings of residential buildings had especially dire consequences, wiping out entire families, with 551 children killed, a choked-up McGowan Davis told reporters in Geneva.
Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed in their homes, mainly women and children, the report notes. Witnesses and survivors of these bombings described airstrikes that turned houses into piles of dust and ash in mere seconds.
The report quotes a member of the A-Najar family, 19 members of which were killed in an airstrike in Khan Younis on June, 26. "I woke up at about six or so, in the hospital, and I later learned that my sister, my mother and my children had all died," he said. "We all died that day, even those who survived."
At least 142 families lost three or more members in attacks on residential buildings during the war, resulting in 742 deaths.
"There was an explosion about every 10 seconds," said a witness from Rafah during an intensive IDF bombardment on August 1, after fears emerged that a soldier was kidnapped.
McGowan Davis states in the report that when an Israeli soldier's life is on the line, it seems that rules are ignored.
"The fact that Israel did not revise its practice of air strikes, even after their dire effects on civilians became apparent, raises questions of whether this was part of a broader policy which was at least tacitly approved at the highest level of government," the commission said in a statement.
The commission expressed concern about Israel’s extensive use of weapons that have a wide kill and injury radius; though not illegal, their use in densely populated areas is highly likely to kill combatants and civilians indiscriminately.
Israel has argued that it took unprecedented measures to avoid civilian casualties, ordering residents to evacuate through leaflets, phone calls, radio broadcasts and warning strikes with unarmed shells ahead of live airstrikes.
However, the UN commission said that in many incidents "the weapons used, the timing of attacks, and the fact that the targets were located in densely populated areas indicate that the Israel Defense Forces may not have done everything feasible to avoid or limit civilian casualties."
Commission members say there appears to be a pattern whereby the IDF issued warnings to people to leave a neighborhood and then automatically considered anyone remaining to be a fighter. This practice, the commission says, 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. First aid centers reported that they received desperate calls for help from people in the Saja'iyya neighborhood in which children's screams could be heard.
Palestinian war crimes
The commission expressed concern about Israel’s extensive use of weapons that have a wide kill and injury radius; though not illegal, their use in densely populated areas is highly likely to kill combatants and civilians indiscriminately.
Israel has argued that it took unprecedented measures to avoid civilian casualties, ordering residents to evacuate through leaflets, phone calls, radio broadcasts and warning strikes with unarmed shells ahead of live airstrikes.
However, the UN commission said that in many incidents "the weapons used, the timing of attacks, and the fact that the targets were located in densely populated areas indicate that the Israel Defense Forces may not have done everything feasible to avoid or limit civilian casualties."
Commission members say there appears to be a pattern whereby the IDF issued warnings to people to leave a neighborhood and then automatically considered anyone remaining to be a fighter. This practice, the commission says, 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. First aid centers reported that they received desperate calls for help from people in the Saja'iyya neighborhood in which children's screams could be heard.
Palestinian war crimes
The report further says Palestinian armed groups had fired 4,881 rockets and 1,753 mortar bombs, many toward major Israeli cities and towns, killing six civilians and injuring at least 1,600 others.
It cites "the inherently indiscriminate nature of most of the projectiles launched into Israel and (of) the targeting of civilians, which violate international humanitarian law and may amount to a war crime".
Speaking to the effect the constant rocket fire had to Israeli civilians, the reports states that "The hostilities also caused immense distress and disruption to the lives of civilians in Israel. Witnesses living near Gaza spoke of being disturbed by seeing the bombing from their sitting room windows but also struggled to reach shelters in time with their children when the sirens alerted them to incoming attacks. The indiscriminate firing of thousands of rockets and mortars at Israel appeared to have the intention of spreading terror among civilians there."
McGowan Davis said one Israeli woman had described the helplessness she felt when her grandchild pleaded with her to "stop the rockets".
"In addition, the Israeli military discovered 14 tunnels extending from Gaza into Israel that were used to attack their soldiers during this period. The idea of the tunnels traumatized Israeli civilians who feared they could be attacked at any moment by gunmen bursting out of the ground," the comission notes.
It cites "the inherently indiscriminate nature of most of the projectiles launched into Israel and (of) the targeting of civilians, which violate international humanitarian law and may amount to a war crime".
Speaking to the effect the constant rocket fire had to Israeli civilians, the reports states that "The hostilities also caused immense distress and disruption to the lives of civilians in Israel. Witnesses living near Gaza spoke of being disturbed by seeing the bombing from their sitting room windows but also struggled to reach shelters in time with their children when the sirens alerted them to incoming attacks. The indiscriminate firing of thousands of rockets and mortars at Israel appeared to have the intention of spreading terror among civilians there."
McGowan Davis said one Israeli woman had described the helplessness she felt when her grandchild pleaded with her to "stop the rockets".
"In addition, the Israeli military discovered 14 tunnels extending from Gaza into Israel that were used to attack their soldiers during this period. The idea of the tunnels traumatized Israeli civilians who feared they could be attacked at any moment by gunmen bursting out of the ground," the comission notes.
The independent investigators also condemn what they say had been executions of 21 alleged Palestinian "collaborators" with Israel by militants in Gaza, saying these killings appeared to constitute war crimes and calling on the Palestinians to hold those behind the executions accountable.
'Impunity across the board'
While the conflict has ended, McGowan Davis pointed to a "pervasive failure on all sides to achieve justice" for the wrongs committed, and the report urges Israel to "break with its recent lamentable track record in holding wrongdoers accountable," noting that “accountability on the Palestinian side is also woefully inadequate." "The commission is concerned that impunity prevails across the board for violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law allegedly committed by Israeli forces..." it says in the report.
"Israel has failed to hold accountable those responsible for alleged grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law resulting from IDF actions during recent past active hostilities in Gaza," the report notes.
"The commission is disturbed by Israel’s decision to close its criminal investigation into the case of the killing of four children on the beach in Gaza on 16 July 2014. International journalists and many Palestinian eyewitnesses do not appear to have been interviewed by the Israeli authorities, which raises questions about the thoroughness of their investigation," the report states.
No Israeli cooperation
The commission criticizes Israeli authorities for failing to respond to repeated requests by for information and direct access to Israel and to Palestinian territories.
Israel, the report states, has not released sufficient information for investigating the motives for its strikes in Gaza. "Information currently made available is very welcome, but is insufficient to allow for effective public and international scrutiny," the commission says.
While the Israeli government refused to cooperate with the commission, its members obtained harrowing first hand testimony by means of Skype, VTC and telephone interviews. It also conducted face-to-face interviews with victims and witnesses from the West Bank during two visits to Jordan and spoke to victims and witnesses from Israel who travelled to Geneva.
Among the Israelis to testify in front of the commission were MK Haim Yellin, who was the head of the Eshkol Regional Council during the war; Gila Tregerman, the mother of four-year-old Daniel, who was killed in a mortar attack; and Gadi Yarkoni, who lost his legs in a mortar attack. Israeli NGOs and human rights organizations also submitted files representing Israel's side.
The commission conducted more than 280 confidential interviews and received some 500 written submissions.
“We were deeply moved by the immense suffering and resilience of the victims,” the commissioners note, “we just hope our report contributes in some small way to ending the cycle of violence."
While Israel refused to cooperate with the commission, its members say they received full cooperation from Palestinian officials, including the Palestinian observer in the UN. The commission met with representatives of the Palestinian government in Amman, as well as representatives from Gaza with written statements. The commission sent both the Israeli and Palestinian governments a list of questions regarding specific incidents, legal matters, and policy. A question list was also sent to Hamas, however only the Palestinian government answered.
'Investigate international violations'
In the recommendations portion of the report, the commission laments "The persistent lack of implementation of recommendations – made by previous commissions of inquiry, fact-finding missions, United Nations treaty bodies, special procedures and other United Nations bodies."
The commission also calls upon all parties to respect international law, and cooperate fully with the International Criminal Court, while calling on Israelis and Palestinians to demonstrate political leadership.
The commission additionally calls on the Israeli government to conduct a thorough, transparent, objective and credible review of policies governing military operations and of law enforcement activities in the Palestinian territories, as defined by political and military decision-makers, to ensure compliance with international law, specifically in regards to the use of high powered explosives in populated areas, defining military targets, the tactic of targeting high rises, improving warnings to civilians before strikes, and the protection of citizens when invoking the Hannibal Directive.
The investigators also call on Israel to explain its "targeting decisions" to allow independent assessment of its attacks on Gaza Strip.
Furthermore, the report asserts that Israel must end its blockade of Gaza, halt settlement building, and implement the advisory opinion rendered on July 9, 2004 by the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of the construction of the separation wall in the Palestinian territories.
'Impunity across the board'
While the conflict has ended, McGowan Davis pointed to a "pervasive failure on all sides to achieve justice" for the wrongs committed, and the report urges Israel to "break with its recent lamentable track record in holding wrongdoers accountable," noting that “accountability on the Palestinian side is also woefully inadequate." "The commission is concerned that impunity prevails across the board for violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law allegedly committed by Israeli forces..." it says in the report.
"Israel has failed to hold accountable those responsible for alleged grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law resulting from IDF actions during recent past active hostilities in Gaza," the report notes.
"The commission is disturbed by Israel’s decision to close its criminal investigation into the case of the killing of four children on the beach in Gaza on 16 July 2014. International journalists and many Palestinian eyewitnesses do not appear to have been interviewed by the Israeli authorities, which raises questions about the thoroughness of their investigation," the report states.
No Israeli cooperation
The commission criticizes Israeli authorities for failing to respond to repeated requests by for information and direct access to Israel and to Palestinian territories.
Israel, the report states, has not released sufficient information for investigating the motives for its strikes in Gaza. "Information currently made available is very welcome, but is insufficient to allow for effective public and international scrutiny," the commission says.
While the Israeli government refused to cooperate with the commission, its members obtained harrowing first hand testimony by means of Skype, VTC and telephone interviews. It also conducted face-to-face interviews with victims and witnesses from the West Bank during two visits to Jordan and spoke to victims and witnesses from Israel who travelled to Geneva.
Among the Israelis to testify in front of the commission were MK Haim Yellin, who was the head of the Eshkol Regional Council during the war; Gila Tregerman, the mother of four-year-old Daniel, who was killed in a mortar attack; and Gadi Yarkoni, who lost his legs in a mortar attack. Israeli NGOs and human rights organizations also submitted files representing Israel's side.
The commission conducted more than 280 confidential interviews and received some 500 written submissions.
“We were deeply moved by the immense suffering and resilience of the victims,” the commissioners note, “we just hope our report contributes in some small way to ending the cycle of violence."
While Israel refused to cooperate with the commission, its members say they received full cooperation from Palestinian officials, including the Palestinian observer in the UN. The commission met with representatives of the Palestinian government in Amman, as well as representatives from Gaza with written statements. The commission sent both the Israeli and Palestinian governments a list of questions regarding specific incidents, legal matters, and policy. A question list was also sent to Hamas, however only the Palestinian government answered.
'Investigate international violations'
In the recommendations portion of the report, the commission laments "The persistent lack of implementation of recommendations – made by previous commissions of inquiry, fact-finding missions, United Nations treaty bodies, special procedures and other United Nations bodies."
The commission also calls upon all parties to respect international law, and cooperate fully with the International Criminal Court, while calling on Israelis and Palestinians to demonstrate political leadership.
The commission additionally calls on the Israeli government to conduct a thorough, transparent, objective and credible review of policies governing military operations and of law enforcement activities in the Palestinian territories, as defined by political and military decision-makers, to ensure compliance with international law, specifically in regards to the use of high powered explosives in populated areas, defining military targets, the tactic of targeting high rises, improving warnings to civilians before strikes, and the protection of citizens when invoking the Hannibal Directive.
The investigators also call on Israel to explain its "targeting decisions" to allow independent assessment of its attacks on Gaza Strip.
Furthermore, the report asserts that Israel must end its blockade of Gaza, halt settlement building, and implement the advisory opinion rendered on July 9, 2004 by the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of the construction of the separation wall in the Palestinian territories.
The commission later calls upon the "State of Palestine" (the way the commission refers to the Palestinian side in the report) to "ensure the investigations into violations of international law by the Palestinian Authority, and Palestinian armed groups; to hasten the efforts to translate Palestinian unity declarations into tangible measures; to end all attacks and rocket fire on Israeli civilians, and stop summary executions and torture of Palestinians; and to cooperate with the Palestinian investigation which is meant to bring to justice those responsible for violations."
While the commission devotes a large portion of the report to the harming of Palestinian civilians by Israel, and states that "Palestinian armed factions often acted from within densely packed neighborhoods," there was no mention in the conclusions portion of the report of Hamas' use of civilians as human shields.
While the commission devotes a large portion of the report to the harming of Palestinian civilians by Israel, and states that "Palestinian armed factions often acted from within densely packed neighborhoods," there was no mention in the conclusions portion of the report of Hamas' use of civilians as human shields.
The report will only be officially presented to the United Nation's Human Rights Council in Geneva on June 29, 2015, but the commission sent it to both parties in advance.
Even before the report's unveiling, Israel's Military Advocate General decided to expand the IDF's criminal investigations against soldiers and officers suspected of committing violations during the conflict. The charges focus on three cases in addition to those already investigated by the commission, in which unlawful use of force by IDF forces is suspected.
The ICC prosecutor's office said Monday it was "taking cognisance of the (UN) report and will review it in the context of its ongoing preliminary examination," aimed at determining whether an investigation is warranted.
The UN investigators refused to say whether they thought the ICC was an appropriate forum for seeking accountability for the abuses committed during the 2014 Gaza conflict.
A resolution based on their report will likely be tabled at the Human Rights Council next week, but it remains unclear whether diplomats will be able to agree on what follow-up action is merited.
McGowan Davis said she hoped the report could help "push the ball of justice a little further down the field."
Read the full report in English
Even before the report's unveiling, Israel's Military Advocate General decided to expand the IDF's criminal investigations against soldiers and officers suspected of committing violations during the conflict. The charges focus on three cases in addition to those already investigated by the commission, in which unlawful use of force by IDF forces is suspected.
The ICC prosecutor's office said Monday it was "taking cognisance of the (UN) report and will review it in the context of its ongoing preliminary examination," aimed at determining whether an investigation is warranted.
The UN investigators refused to say whether they thought the ICC was an appropriate forum for seeking accountability for the abuses committed during the 2014 Gaza conflict.
A resolution based on their report will likely be tabled at the Human Rights Council next week, but it remains unclear whether diplomats will be able to agree on what follow-up action is merited.
McGowan Davis said she hoped the report could help "push the ball of justice a little further down the field."
Read the full report in English
Foreign ministry slams UN report on Protective Edge, says IDF conducted itself to 'highest standards'; PM: UNHRC does everything but care for human rights.
Israel's Foreign Ministry published a harsh response to the UN Human Rights Council's report on 2014's Operation Protective Edge on Monday, calling the UNHRC "a notoriously biased institution" that "has a singular obsession with Israel."
The report released just prior to Israel's statement harshly accused Israel of continuing its policy of airstrikes despite the resulting death if Gaza and suggested that Hamas had made efforts to warn Israeli civilians of impending rocket attacks.
On the other hand, the report said that Hamas was responsible for war crimes in the public executions of individuals labeled as Israeli
"collaborators." Investigators also said that because of Israel's refusal to release specific information for security reasons, or to cooperate with the investigation, made it difficult to come to honest conclusions on certain issues.
"We take note of the fact that the authors of this report admitted that they lacked much of the relevant information," read the Israeli response. "It is regrettable that the report fails to recognize the profound difference between Israel's moral behavior during Operation Protective Edge and the terror organizations it confronted.
"Israel will consider the report in light of these essential failings. It would encourage all fair-minded observers to do the same." The Foreign Ministry cited an internal Israeli investigation into the conflict, saying, "In defending itself against attacks, Israel's military acted according to the highest international standards."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu replied to the UN report at a Likud meeting on Monday afternoon saying that the organization that calls itself the Human Rights Council, "does everything besides caring for human rights."
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely also responded to the UN report personally, saying, "The entire purpose of the report is to smudge the face of Israel and the IDF." Education Minister Naftali Bennett responded to the United Nations report saying, "This report has blood on its hands because it permits the murder of Jews".
Bennett noted that the report "ties our soldiers' hands and prevents them from protecting the people of the south and the entire country." Bennett added, "When the questions are dipped in hypocrisy and treat Jewish blood as if it were invisible ink, the answers do not matter, as the one who decides what to investigate also decides what the investigation's results will be ".
Israel's Foreign Ministry published a harsh response to the UN Human Rights Council's report on 2014's Operation Protective Edge on Monday, calling the UNHRC "a notoriously biased institution" that "has a singular obsession with Israel."
The report released just prior to Israel's statement harshly accused Israel of continuing its policy of airstrikes despite the resulting death if Gaza and suggested that Hamas had made efforts to warn Israeli civilians of impending rocket attacks.
On the other hand, the report said that Hamas was responsible for war crimes in the public executions of individuals labeled as Israeli
"collaborators." Investigators also said that because of Israel's refusal to release specific information for security reasons, or to cooperate with the investigation, made it difficult to come to honest conclusions on certain issues.
"We take note of the fact that the authors of this report admitted that they lacked much of the relevant information," read the Israeli response. "It is regrettable that the report fails to recognize the profound difference between Israel's moral behavior during Operation Protective Edge and the terror organizations it confronted.
"Israel will consider the report in light of these essential failings. It would encourage all fair-minded observers to do the same." The Foreign Ministry cited an internal Israeli investigation into the conflict, saying, "In defending itself against attacks, Israel's military acted according to the highest international standards."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu replied to the UN report at a Likud meeting on Monday afternoon saying that the organization that calls itself the Human Rights Council, "does everything besides caring for human rights."
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely also responded to the UN report personally, saying, "The entire purpose of the report is to smudge the face of Israel and the IDF." Education Minister Naftali Bennett responded to the United Nations report saying, "This report has blood on its hands because it permits the murder of Jews".
Bennett noted that the report "ties our soldiers' hands and prevents them from protecting the people of the south and the entire country." Bennett added, "When the questions are dipped in hypocrisy and treat Jewish blood as if it were invisible ink, the answers do not matter, as the one who decides what to investigate also decides what the investigation's results will be ".
