Starvation, deliberate killings, gender-based violence: UN finds both Hamas and Israel guilty of war crimes

Not just Israel or Hamas but both the warring sides have been found committing war crimes in Gaza, the United Nations found in its first in-depth report on the October 7 attack.

While Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups have been grossly violating international laws, Israel has also been accused of committing crimes against humanity in Gaza. The war between Israel and Hamas has led to the deaths and displacement of thousands of Palestinians. On the other hand, Hamas has as many as 251 Israeli hostages under its captive, of which 116 are in Gaza although Tel Aviv claims 41 of them are dead.

The independent Commission of Inquiry’s report is the United Nations’ first in-depth investigation into the events of the war that erupted on October 7.

The report found that “a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Gaza.”

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“The commission found that the crimes against humanity of extermination; murder; gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys; forcible transfer; and torture and inhuman and cruel treatment were committed,” it added.

The report is based on interviews with victims and witnesses conducted remotely, and in Turkey and Egypt, and through studying thousands of verified open-source items, satellite imagery and forensic medical reports, the commission said.

Hamas ‘deliberately’ killed people

The Commission of Inquiry report sheds light on the events of the October 7 attack and all that has happened since then.

It found that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups “deliberately killed, injured, mistreated, took hostages and committed sexual and gender-based violence”.

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Civilians and members of the Israeli security forces were the victims of the crimes committed by Hamas.

“These actions constitute war crimes and violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” the report said.

The commission further said it found “significant evidence on the desecration of corpses, including sexualised desecration, decapitations, lacerations, burning, severing of body parts and undressing”.

“Women were subjected to gender-based violence during the course of their execution or abduction. Women and women’s bodies were used as victory trophies by male perpetrators.”

Even children, who were filmed witnessing their relatives being killed “for propaganda purposes”, were not spared.

Israel ‘starved’ Gaza

Meanwhile, Israel’s crime amounted to denying Gazans humanitarian aid, thereby starving them.

The report says that Israeli authorities are “responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare, murder or wilful killing, intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, forcible transfer, sexual violence, torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, arbitrary detention and outrages upon personal dignity”.

In fact, the commission also found that Israeli forces committed sexual violence torture and inhuman or cruel treatment and outrages upon personal dignity in the West Bank.

With inputs from AFP