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Egypt Independent
“Israeli forces may have committed war crimes in the latest 11-day war on the Hamas group which rules the Gaza Strip”, The UN Rights chief said on Thursday.
The remarks by Michelle Bachelet came as the UN’s top human rights body opened a one-day special session to discuss the plight of the Palestinians in the fighting this month. “Hamas indiscriminate rocketing during the conflict were also a clear violation of the rules of war”, Bachelet noted.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spoke to the Human Rights Council, chronicling the “most significant escalation of hostilities since 2014”, which “left devastation and death in the Gaza Strip before a cease-fire last week”.
“Air strikes in such densely populated areas resulted in a high level of civilian fatalities and injuries, as well as the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure”, she said.
“Such strikes raise serious concerns of Israel’s compliance with distinction and proportionality under international humanitarian law”, Bachelet stressed.
“Such attacks may constitute war crimes, if deemed to be indiscriminate and disproportionate in their impact on civilians”, she added.
The day-long debate involved personal accounts from Palestinians, such as that of a young woman journalist from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, an early flashpoint that led to the violence, as well as statements from the council’s 47 member states and observer states.
In an apparent allusion to tactics of Hamas, she said “it was a violation of international humanitarian law to locate military assets in densely populated civilian areas, or to launch attacks from them”.
“Hamas rockets are indiscriminate and fail to distinguish between military and civilian objects, and their use, thereby, constitutes a clear violation of international humanitarian law”, she added.
“Unless the root causes of the violence are addressed, it will certainly be a matter of time until the next round of violence commences with further pain and suffering for civilians on all sides”, she highlighted.
The Organization of Islamic Conference has presented a resolution that, if passed by the council, would mark an unprecedented level of scrutiny authorized by the council by setting up a permanent commission to report on human rights violations in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
A vote on the draft resolution was likely at the end of the session, which is largely virtual.
Israel, backed by the United States, accuses the council of anti-Israel bias and refused to cooperate with its investigators. Israel’s ambassador, Meirav Eilon Shahar, called on member states to oppose the Thursday’s meeting.
