Geneva: The United Nations has released a damning assessment of the early stages of the Gaza war, implicating both Israel and Hamas in the commission of war crimes. The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) went further to suggest that Israel’s actions might also constitute crimes against humanity due to the staggering civilian toll.
Two comprehensive reports were issued by the COI, one examining the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and another scrutinizing Israel’s military response. The COI, which operates under an extensive mandate to gather evidence and pinpoint culprits of international offenses in Israel and the Palestinian territories, has faced criticism from Israel for alleged bias and obstruction of its investigative efforts.
Israel’s diplomatic mission to the UN in Geneva has dismissed the COI’s findings, with Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar condemning what she perceives as a politically motivated agenda against Israel. Hamas has yet to comment on the reports.
The COI’s reports detail over 1,200 deaths and 250 hostages from the Oct. 7 attacks, leading to an Israeli military retaliation that resulted in over 37,000 Palestinian fatalities according to local counts.
Both parties stand accused of war crimes including torture, murder, indignities against personal dignity, and inhumane treatment. The COI accuses Israel of additional war crimes such as employing starvation as a method of warfare by deliberately withholding essential supplies from Gazans and obstructing their provision by others.
The COI statement highlighted that some war crimes by Israel also meet the criteria for crimes against humanity, given their systematic nature and deliberate infliction of maximum damage on civilians.
Evidence collected by UN-mandated bodies like the COI can sometimes serve as a foundation for war crimes prosecutions and may be utilized by entities such as the International Criminal Court.
The COI’s findings draw from a wealth of sources including victim interviews, satellite imagery, medical reports, and verified open-source data. The reports uncover mass killings in public shelters and patterns of sexual violence among Palestinian armed groups. Additionally, they criticize Israel’s use of high-capacity bombs in densely populated areas for violating international humanitarian law due to their inability to distinguish between military targets and civilian structures.
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Furthermore, the COI identified instances of gender persecution against Palestinian men and boys subjected to severe public humiliation as a crime against humanity.
The U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva is slated to deliberate on these pivotal findings next week. The COI, which includes three independent experts led by former U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay from South Africa, was established by the Geneva council in 2021. Notably, it operates under an open-ended mandate, a point of contention for Israel and several allied nations.
