UNITED NATIONS: A much-awaited United Nations report has held that both Israelis and the Hamas group committed war crimes during last year’s Israeli action in Gaza Strip.

“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,” the report said.

The 200-page report, commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and released in Geneva on Monday, said: “In some cases, these violations may amount to war crimes. ”

The Palestinian Authority is expected to make use of this report when it submits war crimes complaints against Israel to the International Criminal Court, possibly as early as this week.

Israel had refused to cooperate with the UNHRC probe, deriding it as a kangaroo court.

The commission said it had gathered “substantial information pointing to serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law” by both sides.

In some cases, it added, these violations may amount to war crimes.

“The extent of the devastation and human suffering in Gaza was unprecedented and will impact generations to come,” said Mary McGowan Davis, the chair of the commission, at a press briefing.

More than 2,200 Palestinians, 550 children among them, were killed during the fighting, according to UN and Palestinian officials, while 73 people, including six civilians, died on the Israeli side.

ISRAEL INCENSED: Israel, which long has had a contentious relationship with the United Nations, criticised the report as biased. In particular, the Jewish state took issue with the UN Human Rights Council, which commissioned the inquiry, alleging it was stacked with countries that focus disproportionate attention on Israel and have poor human rights records themselves.

Palestinian officials and Hamas had no immediate comment.

According to a news agency, Israel’s foreign ministry said it was studying the UN report, but noted “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”.

It accused the UNHRC of having “a singular obsession with Israel”, passing more country-specific resolutions against Israel than against Syria, Iran and North Korea combined — in fact, more than against all other countries combined”.

Israeli claims of bias forced the head of the investigation, Canadian law professor William Schabas, to resign earlier this year after it was discovered he had provided legal advice to the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

The commission, which presented its findings in Geneva, said last year’s hostilities saw a huge increase in firepower, with more than 6,000 air strikes by Israel and approximately 50,000 tank and artillery shells fired.

Palestinian armed groups fired 4,881 rockets and 1,753 mortars toward Israel during the 50-day war, it added.

Palestinians have said that the Israeli army violated the rules of war _ 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.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2015

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