Both Israel and Palestinian militants may have committed war crimes during last year’s Gaza war, a widely anticipated United Nations report said Monday, decrying “unprecedented” devastation and human suffering.
The Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict announced it had gathered “substantial information pointing to the possible commission of war crimes by both Israel and Palestinian armed groups.”
On Jan. 16 the ICC announced “a preliminary examination” into Israel’s actions over a period including the Gaza war in which over 2,200 Palestinians were killed, mainly civilians.
On the Israeli side 73 people were killed, 67 whom were soldiers.
On April 1, the PLO acceded to the ICC with the goal of trying Israeli leaders over alleged abuses in the Gaza war and alleged crimes relating to the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
But the Israeli military has expressed confidence that its own internal probes will be sufficient to head off action by the Hague-based court.
On June 11, the Israeli army said that it was dropping proceedings over a July 16 bombing of a Gaza beach where four children were killed during last summer’s war.
Cousins Ahed Atef Bakr and Zakaria Ahed Bakr, both aged 10, nine-year-old Mohamed Ramez Bakr and 11-year-old Ismail Mohamed Bakr were playing on the beach in Gaza City when they were hit in strikes witnessed by journalists staying at a beachfront hotel.
The death of the four boys was well documented and brought international outcry against policies that allegedly enabled the Israeli military to kill civilians.
I am from Vancouver,Canada and I wanted to say that from 1948 Israel has been responsible for war crimes in Gaza and the rest of Palestine.It is Israel that is in the wrong not the Palestinians. Israel is illegally occupying the West Bank and is preventing Gaza from getting building supplies and preventing the People of Gaza from travelling outside Gaza.
The UN shouldn’t be saying that both sides have committed war crimes.That is an insult to all Palestinians.It is Israel alone that should be condemned for war crimes.Most people in the world knows that and it is about time that the UN acknowledged that fact.
Notwithstanding the hundreds of differences between Muslims and Jews alike share one thing in common, i.e., we all believe in God, the Creator and Master of the Universe. Also, we belong to the same denomination of God’s species and are referred to as humans. Furthermore, as inhabitants of the same country, we are mutual neighbors.
It is a common experience that calamities which cannot be averted by ordinary measures, and the difficulties which seem insurmountable, very often respond to the power of unanimity. Hence it would be against the dictates of wisdom for one to not benefit from the blessings of unanimity. We should dispose kindly. (Ruhanikhazain)