Nov. 9 (UPI) — The United Nations Human Rights Office says Hamas and Israeli forces should face a “reckoning” for war crimes committed since Oct. 7, 2023.
The HRC report says 70% of the verified casualties through April were women and children.
The U.N. Human Rights Office on Friday published a report assessing potential war crimes and human rights violations by Israel, Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups in Gaza and during the war on Israeli civilians.
“It is essential that there is a due reckoning with respect to the allegations of serious violations of international law,” U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said.
“The rules of war, in force now for 160 years, were designed to limit and prevent human suffering in times of armed conflict,” Turk added. “Their wanton disregard has led to the current extremes of human suffering, which we continue to see today.”
Israel’s diplomatic mission to the UN in Geneva criticized the report, writing: “Once again, OHCHR fails to accurately reflect the realities on the ground, and disregards the extensive role of Hamas and other terrorist organisations in deliberately causing civilian harm in Gaza.”
Turk said the international community is obligated to support the International Criminal Court and efforts to hold respective parties accountable for alleged violations of international law during the war between Hamas and Israel.
The U.N. report accuses Israel of violating international law by requiring the “Gaza’s entire destruction and the exodus of the Palestinian people.”
The deaths of women and children “demonstrates an apparent indifference to the death of civilians,” the report indicates.
The report acknowledges Israel has issued evacuation warnings before engaging Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups in targeted areas but says those warnings amount to a forcible transfer of civilians to other locations in violation of international law.
“Civilians have borne the brunt of attacks, including through the initial ‘complete siege’ of Gaza by Israeli forces,” according to the U.N Human Rights office.
The U.N. report says Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups used civilians as shields, writing they “intentionally co-located military objectives and civilians with the specific intent of trying to prevent the targeting of those military objective, exposing civilians to high risks of harm and damage from the hostilities.”
The UN agency said of verified 8,119 people killed in Gaza from November 2023 to April 2024, 80% were killed in residential buildings or similar housing. That included 44% children and 26% women, the report found.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has reported a death toll of more than 43,300 people over the past 13 months.
Israel’s military says Hamas fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and seized more than 250 hostages.
“There are also serious accounts of members of Palestinian armed groups and other armed and unarmed Palestinians committing rape, sexual assault and torture,” the U.N. report says.
“Projectiles that are inherently indiscriminate continued to be launched towards and into Israel by Palestinian armed groups,” according to the report.
