Israel may have violated war laws in Gaza: UN

The UN human rights office has said that Israeli forces may have repeatedly violated the war laws and failed to distinguish between civilians and fighters in the Gaza conflict.

On the other hand, the head of a UN inquiry has accused the Israeli military of carrying out an extermination of Palestinians.

The UN human rights office (OHCHR), in a report, said that Israeli forces may have systematically violated the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack”.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimise to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel’s bombing campaign,

Meanwhile, Israel’s permanent mission to the United Nations termed the analysis as factually, legally, and methodologically flawed.

It added that since the OHCHR has a partial factual picture, any attempt to reach legal conclusions is inherently flawed.

The UN Human Rights Council, in a separate meeting,

head of UN Commission of Inquiry Navi Pillay said that perpetrators of abuses in the conflict must be brought to account.

She repeated findings from a report published last week that both Hamas militants and Israel have committed war crimes but said the latter alone was responsible for the most serious abuses under international law known as crimes against humanity.