UN Report Finds that Israel Intentionally Shot Children, Disabled and Journalists in Gaza

A United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Independent Commission of Inquiry, on Thursday, concluded that Israel had intentionally shot unarmed Palestinian protestors during the Great Return March protests in the besieged Gaza Strip. According to the report, the vast majority of Gaza protesters who were killed by Israeli forces -154 out of 183 people - had been unarmed.

The commission found that 35 children had been killed, some from direct weapons fire. The commission also noted one case involving a disabled person in a wheelchair and direct fire at journalists who claimed that they were clearly identified as press.

"There is no justification for shooting children and disabled people that pose no risk, said commission member, Sara Hussein, at Thursday's presentation of the report.

The commission concluded there were "reasonable grounds" that Israeli security forces violated international law, and recommended that UN members consider imposing individual sanctions, such as a travel ban or an assets freeze, on those identified as responsible by the commission. In addition, the commission said that evidence it collected should be transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Rights groups say that the report's findings indicate that Israel may have committed war crimes.

Amnesty International welcomed the report, saying that its findings confirmed: "that many cases appeared to amount to willful killings constituting war crimes."

"Week on week since March last year, Palestinians have protested against the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip, demanding the implementation of their right of return, guaranteed to them under international law. And a week on week, Israeli forces have deliberately killed civilians, including children, journalists, and medical workers. These killings constitute a war crime under international law," says War on Want spokesperson, Ryvka Barnard.

Israel has rejected the report's findings. The commission's chairman, Santiago Canton, expressed regret that the Israeli government had not co-operated in the investigation and called on Israel to carry out a substantial investigation of its own.

The Israeli rights group, Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), also called for the Israeli government to establish a commission of inquiry to examine the events that took place during the protests. "It is impossible to ignore the death and injury of dozens of civilians, among them, women and children, by claiming self-defence," said an ACRI spokesperson.

The panel - known as the UN Human Rights Council Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2018 Gaza protests - was established in May last year, after Israel killed more than 60 protesters on 14 May alone.

Source: Afro-Palestine Newswire Press Release