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Israeli Killings in Gaza may Constitute Warcrimes – UN Human Rights Report

Crescent International

The Independent Commission of Inquiry established by the UN Human Rights Council did not mince words. At a Geneva press conference on February 28, its spokesperson said that by shooting unarmed civilians in Gaza, Israel “may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Showing total disdain for human life, especially of Palestinians, Israeli rulers continued to indulge in their criminal behavior despite release of the report.

Israeli warplanes were sent to bomb the besieged Gaza Strip, yet again on March 9.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing corruption charges (the Israeli general prosecutor Avichai Mandelblit officially called for his indictment on corruption charges), dismissed the Inquiry Commission report with his customary arrogance.

He trotted out the same old clichés accusing the UN of “hypocrisy and lies, out of obsessive hatred of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.”

What did this arrogant Zionist find to be based on lies: that more 250 Palestinians have not been shot dead by snipers including paramedics, children and journalists?

The UN Inquiry Commission’s result of an investigation tasked with examining Israeli sniper fire directed at unarmed Palestinian protesters near the Israeli created buffer zone in Gaza found that Zionist soldiers were guilty of war crimes.

The Inquiry Commission investigated

Israeli shooting of unarmed protestors participating in the Great March of Return.

It was launched on March 30, 2018 to demand the right of return for Palestinian refugees. This is in accordance with UN Resolution 194 of 1948.

The Palestinians have also been demanding an end to the 12-year-long Zionist siege of Gaza that has been likened to an open-air prison.

The UN Inquiry Commission covered the period from March 30 to December 31, 2018 and took testimony from eyewitnesses, examined video footage, photographs as well as examined hospital records.

The UN investigation found that the indiscriminate fire directed at unarmed civilians by Israeli snipers “may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.”

In the nine-month period, more than 250 Palestinians have been killed, including 48 children. Further, more than 26,000 have been injured many hit with high velocity bullets that shatter their bones leaving them permanently disabled.

Gaza’s healthcare system has virtually collapsed. The Zionists have imposed a total siege from three sides, including the sea while the Egyptian regime has blocked the only outlet at the Rafah Crossing.

Nothing can go in or out of Gaza: no medicine, no food and, of course, no spare parts to repair the water treatment plants or the electricity grid.

With raw sewage flowing in the streets, 90 % of Gaza’s water is contaminated adding to diseases that cannot be treated because of lack of medicines.

In Gaza’s hospitals, doctors often have to amputate children’s limbs without anesthesia.

The UN Commission is in possession of the names of those responsible for such crimes. These include the names of snipers who actually killed people, of senior Israeli military officers who adopted the barbaric “shoot to kill” policy and, of course, the war criminals in Tel Aviv who gave the order to do so.

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.”

Israeli soldiers “have intentionally shot children, they intentionally shot people with disabilities, they intentionally shot journalists,” said Sara Hossaini, a member of the Commission, at the February 28 press conference in Geneva.

Since the Inquiry Commission has identified those who committed these criminal acts, it is possible to bring them to trial before an international court.

The Commission has requested that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, share the report with the International Criminal Court.

International organizations including Amnesty International have described Israel’s actions as showing “a cruel and ruthless disregard for international humanitarian law.”

This would not come as a surprise to those that have followed Israel’s conduct over several decades.


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