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June 22nd, 2015 
David Schulberg 
A UN report has accused both Israel and Palestinian armed groups of possible war crimes during the 2014 Gaza conflict, calling the devastation “unprecedented.” Israel has fired back, calling the commission “biased” and insisting Tel Aviv acted morally.
The report – compiled by an independent United
Nations commission of inquiry appointed by the UN Human Rights
Council – found “serious violations of international
humanitarian law” that “may amount to war crimes”
by both Israel and Palestinian militants.
“The extent of the devastation and human suffering in Gaza
was unprecedented and will impact generations to come” the
commission’s chairwoman, New York judge Mary McGowan Davis, said
in a statement.
The
commission determined that 1,462 Palestinian civilians were
killed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during Operation
Protective Edge, one-third of whom were children. That figure is
significantly lower than previous estimates made by health
officials, which reported more than 2,100 Palestinian
deaths.
The report also noted that hundreds of Palestinian civilians,
particularly women and children, were killed in their own homes
during airstrikes. According to the commission, 142 families lost
three or more members in strikes on residential buildings. Those
strikes killed a total of 742 civilians.
“The fact that Israel did not revise its practice of
airstrikes, even after their dire effects on civilians became
apparent, raises the question of whether this was part of a
broader policy which was at least tacitly approved at the highest
level of government,” the commission said.
A key paragraph from the UN report on Gaza war – pic.twitter.com/a6kl6Vs6Hq
— Yousef Munayyer (@YousefMunayyer) June
22, 2015
But Israel’s foreign ministry said on Monday that Tel Aviv acted
in accordance with international standards.
READ MORE: Activists to shut down Israeli arms
factory in Gaza war anniversary protest
“In defending itself against
attacks, Israel’s military acted according to the highest
international standards,” the ministry said on Monday. It
went on to say that the findings made no differentiation between
Israel’s “moral behavior” and the actions of Palestinian
“terror organizations” during the 50-day war.
“It is well known that the entire process that led to the
production of this report was politically motivated and morally
flawed from the outset…this report was commissioned by a
notoriously biased institution,” it added, referring to the
UN Human Rights Council.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke out against
the findings, saying: “The report is biased. The commission
that wrote it is under a committee that does everything but
protect human rights.”
Possible Palestinian war crimes
The report also accused Palestinian militants of possible war
crimes, stating that armed groups fired 4,881 rockets and 1,753
mortars towards Israel.
Six civilians were killed in the attacks on Israel, and at least
1,600 others injured.
The report decried the “indiscriminate” firing of
weapons at Israel, which it said were apparently intended to
“spread terror” among Israeli civilians.
But Hamas senior official Ghazi Hamad rejected those findings on
Monday, saying that its rockets and mortars were aimed at Israeli
military sites – not at civilians.
Hamad told AP that the UN report created a false balance
“between the victims and the killers.”
READ MORE: Hamas committed war crimes, executed
‘collaborators’ in Gaza conflict – Amnesty UK
Although
Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, was mentioned in the
report, the commission mainly refers to “Palestinian armed
groups” rather than Hamas.
The report had originally been scheduled to be released during
the Human Rights Council’s main annual session in March. However,
investigators were faced with delay after the head of the team
quit under Israeli pressure.
That resignation was not enough to satisfy Israel, which
continued to call for the entire inquiry to be scrapped, stating
that the commission and the Human Rights Council are inherently
biased against the Jewish State.
Israel released its own 277-page report earlier this month,
stating that the Gaza offensive was “unfortunate yet
lawful.”
Operation Protective Edge was launched in July 2014, after a
spike in cross-border rocket attacks by Hamas. The Israeli
response was 50 days of intense shelling, airstrikes and attacks
by ground troops.
Source Article from http://rt.com/news/268879-un-israel-war-crimes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
’Flawed & biased’: Israel fires back at UN report accusing it of potential war crimes
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