UN report finds that both Hamas and Israel have committed war crimes on and after 7 October
A UN report has said that in its view both Hamas and Israel have committed war crimes on and after 7 October.
The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report covers the period from 7 October to 31 December 2023, and the findings are based on interviews with victims and witnesses, hundreds of submissions, satellite imagery, medical reports and verified open-source information.
The report accuses Hamas of “intentionally directing attacks against civilians” and committing “murder or wilful killing”. It also accuses Hamas of “torture, inhuman or cruel treatment” and “indiscriminately firing projectiles towards populated areas in Israel”. Hamas was also accused of “the war crime of outrages upon personal dignity” noting during the 7 October attack “the desecration of corpses by burning, mutilation and decapitation” and “the sexualized desecration of both male and female corpses” and “sexual violence”.
The report goes on to list what it says are Israeli war crimes, including “starvation as a method of warfare; murder or wilful killing; intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects; forcible transfer; sexual violence; outrages upon personal dignity” and says that “Israel inflicted collective punishment on the Palestinian population in Gaza.”
In its conclusions, the report says:
7 October 2023 has marked a clear turning point for both Israelis and Palestinians, and it presents a watershed moment that can change the direction of this conflict; with a real risk of further solidifying and expanding the occupation. Amid months of losses and despair, retribution and atrocities, the only tangible result has been compounding the immense suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis, with civilians, yet again, bearing the brunt of decisions by those in power.
It continues:
For Israelis, the attack of 7 October was unprecedented in scale in its modern history, when in one single day hundreds of people were killed and abducted, invoking painful trauma of past persecution not only for Israeli Jews but for Jewish people everywhere … For Palestinians, Israel’s military operation and attack in Gaza has been the longest, largest and bloodiest since 1948. It has caused immense damage and loss of life and triggered for many Palestinians traumatic memories of the Nakba and other Israeli incursions.
Reuters reports the findings will be discussed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next week. The COI is composed of three independent experts.
Israel does not cooperate with the commission, which it says has an anti-Israel bias. Israel’s diplomatic mission to the UN in Geneva has already rejected the findings. Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said “The COI has once again proven that its actions are all in the service of a narrow-led political agenda against Israel.”
The COI says Israel obstructs its work and prevented investigators from accessing both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
The report is available to download here.
Key events
Associated Press note that since 7 October, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed over 400 people, the majority of them Hezbollah members, but the dead also include more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed in northern Israel by fire from Lebanon since the war in Gaza began.
Israel’s military has said in a statement that it has struck “four terrorist infrastructure sites in the area of Yater” inside Lebanon, and also at “a launcher used to fire projectiles from the area of Hanine”.
It says that after projectiles launched from Lebanon landed inside Israel, “fire and rescue services are currently operating to extinguish the fires that broke out as a result of the launches. No injuries were reported in the incidents.”
The IDF says ten more launches have been detected, which brings the number of launches it says have been fired today to about 170.
Reuters reports that Hezbollah has declared at least four attacks on Israel in response to what it called the assassination of senior commander Taleb Abdallah, also known as Abu Taleb.
The group said it had attacked Israeli military headquarters in Ein Zeitim and Ami’ad, and an Israeli military air surveillance station in Meron, in each case firing dozens of Katyusha rockets, according to its statements.
Israel’s military has issued a statement saying that it continues to operate in the central Gaza Strip and in the Rafah area. It claims it is carrying out “intelligence-based, targeted operations” and to have “eliminated a number of armed terrorist cells in close-quarters encounters.”
It says that “Over the past day, the Israeli air force struck and dismantled over 30 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including military structures.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
This week the health authority in Gaza has raised the reported death toll in the territory to over 37,000 since 7 October. Israel says it has lost 298 troops during its ground offensive. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Al Jazeera reports that three people have been killed by an Israeli attack in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Second large rocket barrage fired from Lebanon into Israel
Israel’s military now says that about 160 rockets have been fired into the north of the country from Lebanon.
In a statement the IDF said it had struck back at one of the sites inside Lebanon from where rockets have been launched. There are no reports of any Israeli casualties. The IDF said:
Following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel a short while ago, approximately 70 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon. A number of the projectiles were intercepted, most of them fell in open areas, and several fell in a number of locations in northern Israel. The details are under review. No injuries were reported. In addition, a short while ago, an IAF aircraft struck the launcher that fired toward northern Israel at 10:00 this morning in the area of Yaroun.
Earlier the IDF reported a barrage of 90 rockets been fired. Hezbollah has claimed the attack, which comes after an Israeli strike on the village of Jouya in southern Lebanon killed a senior Hezbollah field commander.
Hebrew news website Ynet described the attack as “unprecedented” and quoted the mayor of Tiberias, Yossi Nevea, saying “The feeling is very difficult, this is the first time in months that there has been an alarm here. The city is prepared and we are all fully prepared. There have been interceptions from what we know.”
Footage posted to social media shows several Iron Dome interceptions and rocket impacts in the Mount Meron area, following a barrage launched from Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/nn7q7tQKUI
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) June 12, 2024
Itay Blumental, military correspondent for Israel’s Kan news service, has posted to social media that “The IDF is attacking southern Lebanon with fighter jets and artillery fire”.
Earlier a barrage of about 90 rockets was fired from inside Lebanon into Israel. Hezbollah claimed to have launched the attack. There are no reports of any casualties inside Israel.
More details soon …
UN report finds that both Hamas and Israel have committed war crimes on and after 7 October
A UN report has said that in its view both Hamas and Israel have committed war crimes on and after 7 October.
The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report covers the period from 7 October to 31 December 2023, and the findings are based on interviews with victims and witnesses, hundreds of submissions, satellite imagery, medical reports and verified open-source information.
The report accuses Hamas of “intentionally directing attacks against civilians” and committing “murder or wilful killing”. It also accuses Hamas of “torture, inhuman or cruel treatment” and “indiscriminately firing projectiles towards populated areas in Israel”. Hamas was also accused of “the war crime of outrages upon personal dignity” noting during the 7 October attack “the desecration of corpses by burning, mutilation and decapitation” and “the sexualized desecration of both male and female corpses” and “sexual violence”.
The report goes on to list what it says are Israeli war crimes, including “starvation as a method of warfare; murder or wilful killing; intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects; forcible transfer; sexual violence; outrages upon personal dignity” and says that “Israel inflicted collective punishment on the Palestinian population in Gaza.”
In its conclusions, the report says:
7 October 2023 has marked a clear turning point for both Israelis and Palestinians, and it presents a watershed moment that can change the direction of this conflict; with a real risk of further solidifying and expanding the occupation. Amid months of losses and despair, retribution and atrocities, the only tangible result has been compounding the immense suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis, with civilians, yet again, bearing the brunt of decisions by those in power.
It continues:
For Israelis, the attack of 7 October was unprecedented in scale in its modern history, when in one single day hundreds of people were killed and abducted, invoking painful trauma of past persecution not only for Israeli Jews but for Jewish people everywhere … For Palestinians, Israel’s military operation and attack in Gaza has been the longest, largest and bloodiest since 1948. It has caused immense damage and loss of life and triggered for many Palestinians traumatic memories of the Nakba and other Israeli incursions.
Reuters reports the findings will be discussed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next week. The COI is composed of three independent experts.
Israel does not cooperate with the commission, which it says has an anti-Israel bias. Israel’s diplomatic mission to the UN in Geneva has already rejected the findings. Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said “The COI has once again proven that its actions are all in the service of a narrow-led political agenda against Israel.”
The COI says Israel obstructs its work and prevented investigators from accessing both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
The report is available to download here.
Israel’s military says approximately 90 projectiles fired from Lebanon, no casualties reported
Israel’s military has issued an update on the missile barrage launched this morning from Lebanon. In a statement the IDF said:
Following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel a short while ago, approximately 90 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon. A number of the projectiles were intercepted and others fell in several locations in northern Israel. As a result, fires broke out in a number of areas. The details are under review.
The claims have not been independently verified. It would be the largest barrage from Lebanon launched at Israel since 7 October.
Haaretz reports that Hezbollah has claimed responsibility. There are no reports of any casualties.
About 100 rockets have been launched from Lebanon into northern Israel this morning, according to reports. It is the largest single attack over the UN-drawn blue line which separates Lebanon and Israel since 7 October. Israeli media reports there are no casualties. The city of Tiberias, situated on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, was a target for the first time during the war.
A video shared on social media shows rocket impacts near the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel amid the major barrage launched from Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/KkAG1eHt5X
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) June 12, 2024
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that a child was killed and several other wounded in an early morning Israeli strike on Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. It also reports that seven civilians were killed when Israel struck at a house in the Al-Shujaiya neighbourhood, to the east of Gaza City.
The claims have not been independently verified. It has not been possible for journalists to verify casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken is expected to head to Qatar today as part of his eighth trip to the region since the 7 October attacks inside southern Israel.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the Israel-Gaza war.
Hamas has issued a formal response to the US ceasefire proposal which seeks to bring an end to the Gaza war, with an official saying the group was seeking some “amendments”, and that their priority was to bring a “complete stop” to the war.
The US has said it is evaluating the Hamas response.
It comes as an Israeli strike on the village of Jouya in southern Lebanon killed a senior Hezbollah field commander and three fighters, according to the Lebanese armed group. Taleb Abdallah, also known as Abu Taleb, was the most senior member of the group killed in the eight months of fire between Israel and Hezbollah, a security source told Reuters.
More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.
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US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who is in Israel as part of his eighth regional trip since the war began, said that Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had “reaffirmed his commitment” to the ceasefire plan outlined by the US, although it has not been formally accepted by either party to the conflict.
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Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday it was the responsibility of the UN security council and the international community to press Israel to open all land crossings into the Gaza Strip to allow an increased flow of aid in.
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Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has called on the international community to force Israel to stop using hunger as a weapon and remove obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip
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Earlier on Tuesday, Hezbollah claimed to fire a barrage of missiles at Israeli targets in the Golan Heights area. Israeli media reported fires in the Nahal Zavitan area, with the head of the local council saying it remains unclear whether the fires were the direct result of rocket or missile strikes, or the result of fallen shrapnel
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The UK has issued more than 100 arms export licences to Israel between the Hamas attack on 7 October and 31 May, according to government figures. The statistics show no arms export licence application was rejected or revoked during the conflict
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The US has said it will provide an additional $404m in humanitarian aid to support Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and the region, bringing, it says, the total US assistance to more than $674m over the past eight months
