A United Nations investigation has accused Israel of committing crimes against humanity during last year’s violence on the Gaza border.
A report published on Thursday said over “6,000 unarmed demonstrators were shot by military snipers” in months after May 2018, when people in Gaza began the Great March of Return protests.
Israel immediately rejected the Independent Commission of Inquiry’s findings as “hostile, deceitful and biased”,saying it and ignored Israel's right to self-defence.
“The Commission has reasonable grounds to believe that during the Great March of Return, Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law,” said Santiago Canton, who chaired the commission.
“Some of those violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity, and must be immediately investigated by Israel.”
The commission’s report said 189 Palestinians were killed until December 31, 2018, while 6,106 others were injured by live ammunition fired by the IDF.
It added that four Israeli soldiers were injured and that one was killed “on a protest day but outside the protest sites”.
There are “reasonable grounds to believe” journalists, health workers, children and disabled people were shot at by Israeli snipers, the report said.
But Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said he “rejects the report outright.”
“No institution can negate Israel’s right to self-defence and its duty to defend its residents and borders from violent attacks,” he said in a statement.
The independent investigation was ordered by the UN Human Rights Council, a body that Israel, the United States and many others, including the UK, have previously criticised as biased for “disproportionately” focusing on Israel in its agenda.
Announcing the United States’s withdrawal from the council last year, Nikki Haley, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, said: “The world’s most inhumane regimes continue to escape scrutiny, and the council continues politicising and scapegoating of countries with positive human rights records in an attempt to distract from the abusers in their ranks.”
The United Kingdom remains a member of the council.
Israel refused to cooperate with Mr Canton’s investigation and did not provide access to Gaza.
