The Israeli state’s genocidal attack on the people of Gaza has been criticised by the United Nations. The UN Human Rights Office (UNOCHR) published a new report, detailing six attacks last year which, it says, may constitute crimes against humanity.
The attacks, which took place from 2-9 December last year, saw the Israeli military bombing a market, residential buildings, a school and a refugee camp. The munitions used were GBU-31 (2,000 lbs), GBU-32 (1,000 lbs) and GBU-39 (250 lbs) bombs.
The UN states that the attacks show a disregard for the “fundamental principles of the laws of warfare”.
According to UN High Commissioner Volker Türk: “The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimise to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel’s bombing campaign.”
The report points out that the six attacks are emblematic of the Israeli state’s disregard of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in its attack on Gaza.
The UN wrote: “Israel’s choices of methods and means of conducting hostilities in Gaza since 7 October, including through the extensive use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated areas, have failed to ensure that they effectively distinguish between civilians and fighters.”
“Civilian lives and infrastructure are protected under IHL. This law lays out the very clear obligations of parties to armed conflicts that make protection of civilians a priority.”
The UN’s report is the latest gesture of condemnation by international institutions for the Israeli state’s ongoing genocide against the people of Gaza. Earlier this month, the UN security council voted for a ceasefire proposal.
In May, the International Criminal Court requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The request marked the first time the ICC has requested warrants for action against a US ally, and came despite surveillance, threats and intimidation by Israeli intelligence service Mossad against the court’s staff. The ICC also requested warrants for the arrest of senior Hamas leaders, over the organisation’s Al Aqsa Flood operation on October 7 2023.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has announced that Israel must halt its attack on the city of Rafah. The ICJ has ruled that there is a plausible case that the Israeli military is committing genocide in Gaza.
Commentators have pointed out that the new UN Human Rights Council Report may be used as evidence to bolster the genocide case brought by South Africa in the ICJ.
Meanwhile, Israel’s attack on Gaza is ongoing. The Israeli military is still carrying out similar attacks to those criticised in the UN report. For example, just yesterday several people were killed in an Israeli bombing near the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, where aid is crossing into the Strip. In total, the death toll has risen to 37,347 people.
Palestinian journalist Marwan Bishara commented on the UNOCHR report on the Al Jazeera website. In his opinion “it’s vital to get such a distinguished international body to substantiate all these allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity while documenting the cases of torture, sexual harassment and all sorts of other crimes carried out by Israel over Gaza.”
However, he said, “The latest UN commission report on Gaza is not going to make any difference today or tomorrow.”
“But I think in historical perspective, it’s incredibly important that the noose continues to tighten around Israel, Israel’s apartheid, Israel’s war crimes and even around Zionism as the state’s ideology – in the way it manifests itself each and every time with such war crimes,” Bishara concluded.
