UN Commission Says Israeli Military Violated Human Rights During 2018 Gaza Protests

UN Commission Says Israeli Military Violated Human Rights During 2018 Gaza Protests

The Israeli military violated the human rights of Palestinians during the Gaza protests last year and committed acts that may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity, the UN independent international commission of inquiry said on Thursday

GENEVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th February, 2019) The Israeli military violated the human rights of Palestinians during the Gaza protests last year and committed acts that may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity, the UN independent international commission of inquiry said on Thursday.

The protests, collectively referred to as the Great March of Return, started on the Israel-Gaza border on March 30 and has been attracting thousands of enclave residents. The Friday of each week since has seen the most violence. The commission of inquiry investigated the demonstrations held in Gaza from March 30 until the end of 2018.

"The Commission has reasonable grounds to believe that during the Great March of Return, Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Some of those violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity, and must be immediately investigated by Israel," chairman of the commission Santiago Canton said as quoted in the press release.

According to the commission, 189 Palestinians were killed during the Gaza protests last year, including 183 Palestinians killed by Israeli military with live ammunition. These fatalities include 35 children, three health workers and two media workers.

"The Commission found reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers shot at journalists, health workers, children and persons with disabilities, knowing they were clearly recognizable as such ... [and] that individual members of the Israeli Security Forces, in the course of their response to the demonstrations, killed and injured civilians who were neither directly participating in hostilities, nor posing an imminent threat. These serious human rights and humanitarian law violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity," the press release said.

At the same time, Israel did not respond to the commission's requests for additional information, or access to the country and occupied Palestinian territories.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry completely rejected this report calling it "hostile, mendacious and biased against Israel."

Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz, in particular, held Hamas movement responsible for organizing these protests that resulted in casualties.

"The report is based on distorted data, with no attempt to check the facts. The whole purpose of the report is to malign the only democracy in the middle East and to impair Israel's right to defend itself against a murderous terror organization. Israel completely rejects this report. No one can deny Israel the right to self-defense and the obligation to protect its citizens and its borders against violent attacks," Katz said in a statement published on ministry's Twitter.

The commission plans to hand this information to the UN high commissioner for human rights, who will inform international justice bodies about that. The International Criminal Court is already concerned with this situation, according to the commission.

The full report will be published and presented to the Human Rights Council on March 18 in Geneva.

Israel blames Hamas, a militant group that runs Gaza, for stoking unrest in the region.