UN probe accuses Israel of possible crimes against humanity in Gaza border riots

By AFP and TOI STAFF
28 February 2019, 12:48 pm

A United Nations probe alleged on Thursday that there is evidence Israel committed crimes against humanity in responding to protests in Gaza in 2018, as snipers targeted people clearly identifiable as children, health workers, journalists and people with disabilities.

“Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Some of those violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity,” Santiago Canton, the chair of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said in a statement.

Acting Foreign Minister Israel Katz denounced the report as a “theater of the absurd” based on false, poorly researched information.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rejecting the report, accused the council of “setting new records for hypocrisy and mendacity, out of an obsessive hatred of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. It is Hamas which fires missiles at Israeli citizens, throws explosive devices and carries out terrorist activity during the violent demonstrations along the fence. Israel will not allow Hamas to attack Israel’s sovereignty and its people, and will maintain the right of self-defense,” he said. “IDF soldiers will continue to vigorously defend Israeli citizens against attack by Hamas and the [other] terrorist organizations financed by Iran, which declares its intention to destroy Israel.”

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Israelis May Have Committed Crimes Against Humanity in Gaza Protests, U.N. Says

By Nick Cumming-Bruce
Feb. 28, 2019

GENEVA — United Nations investigators said on Thursday that Israeli troops may have committed crimes against humanity in shooting unarmed civilians — including children — who posed no threat during the mass protests last year at the border with Gaza.

A commission of inquiry, formed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to look into the violence, reported that Israeli security forces had killed 189 Palestinians and injured more than 9,000 others. Its 25-page report, released in Geneva on Thursday, accused the Israeli authorities of showing little willingness to prosecute anyone responsible.

“The Israeli security forces killed and maimed Palestinian demonstrators who did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to others when they were shot, nor were they directly participating in hostilities,” the panel wrote. “Less lethal alternatives remained available and substantial defenses were in place, rendering the use of lethal force neither necessary nor proportionate, and therefore impermissible.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry, in a statement, blamed Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, for the violence and dismissed the United Nations report as a product of bias, “written by three individuals that lack any understanding in security matters.”

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