ISRAEL – Israel and Hamas have been accused of committing a litany of war crimes and human rights abuses since 7 October in a new independent report to the UN Human Rights Council. The damning accusations, compiled by investigators from the UN’s Commission of Inquiry, accused both sides of war crimes for mounting attacks against civilian populations and “murder or wilfull killings”.

The report, which covers the period up to the end of 2023, specifically accused Israel of crimes against humanity for torture, “extermination” and “gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys”. Israel rejected the report’s findings and accused the commission of pursuing “a narrow-led political agenda” against it. Investigators compiled the report, which will be submitted to the UN’s human rights council next week, through hours of interviews with victims and witnesses, medical reports and open source information. The panel, led by former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, said Israel’s use of heavy weapons in populated areas constituted a war crime as it was a direct attack on civilian populations which intended to cause “maximum damage, disregarding the principles of distinction, proportionality and adequate precautions”. Israel was also accused of several other war crimes, including starvation, arbitrary detention, and the killing and maiming of “tens of thousands of children”. The report also said Israel had weaponised a “total siege” which limited power, food and water to civilians, which it said amounted to “collective punishment”.
Other crimes against humanity committed by Israel, the authors said, included the “extermination, murder, gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys, forcible transfer of the population, torture, and inhuman and cruel treatment”.
Hamas was also accused of a host of abuses during its 7 October attacks, which saw 1,200 people killed and 251 more kidnapped. The report said there was evidence of widespread sexual violence committed against Israeli women and a pattern of mass killings in public shelters.
“Many abductions were carried out with significant physical, mental and sexual violence and degrading and humiliating treatment, including in some cases parading the abductees,” the report said. “Women and women’s bodies were used as victory trophies by male perpetrators.” Israel – which refused to co-operate with the investigation – was quick to reject the report, accusing it of “systematic anti-Israeli discrimination”.…[+]