UN: War crimes by both sides in 2014 Gaza
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Both Israel and Palestinian militants may have committed war crimes during last year鈥檚 Gaza war, a widely anticipated United Nations report said yesterday, decrying the 鈥渦nprecedented鈥 devastation and human suffering.
The Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict announced it had gathered 鈥渟ubstantial information鈥 and 鈥渃redible allegations鈥 that both sides had committed war crimes during the conflict, which killed more than 2,140 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 people on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.
鈥淭he extent of the devastation and human suffering in Gaza was unprecedented and will impact generations to come,鈥 said the commission chair, New York judge Mary McGowan Davis.
Israel, which has been harshly critical of the commission since its inception last year, blasted the report as biased, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisting his country 鈥渄oes not commit war crimes.鈥
鈥淚srael defends itself against a terror organization which calls for its destruction and that itself carries out war crimes,鈥 he said in a statement, referring to Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.
The report criticized both sides, but especially decried the 鈥渉uge firepower鈥 Israel had used in Gaza, with more than 6,000 airstrikes and 50,000 artillery shells fired during the 51-day operation.
The bombings of residential buildings had especially dire consequences, wiping out entire families, with 551 children killed, a choked-up McGowen Davis pointed out to reporters.
Hundreds of Palestinian civilians had been killed in their own homes, and the report provided heart-wrenching testimony from a member of the al-Najjar family who lost 19 of his relatives in an attack in Khan Younis on July 26, including his mother and all his children.
鈥淲e all died that day, even those who survived,鈥 he said.
According to the report, which will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council next Monday, at least 142 families lost three or more members in an attack on residential buildings during last summer鈥檚 war, resulting in 742 deaths.
The investigators meanwhile also decried the 鈥渋ndiscriminate鈥 firing of thousands of rockets and mortars at Israel, which it said appeared to have been intended to 鈥渟pread terror鈥 among Israeli civilians.
Palestinian armed groups fired 4,881 rockets and 1,753 mortars toward Israel, killing six civilians and injuring at least 1,600 others, it said.
And the two-member commission pointed out that tunnels dug by Palestinian militants into Israel had traumatized Israeli civilians.
While the conflict has ended, McGowen Davis pointed to a 鈥減ervasive failure on all sides to achieve justice鈥 for the wrongs committed.
The commission was not granted entry to Israel or the conflict area, and relied instead on more than 280 confidential interviews and some 500 written submissions for its findings.
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