More and more investigations are coming to the same conclusion: Israel's warfare in Gaza is excessively brutal.
Israel is becoming increasingly isolated, notes international law expert Jan Hallenberg. Even for allied USA, the latest UN report means the pressure is increasing.
Both Israel and the Palestinian factions the country is fighting in Gaza have broken the laws of war, a UN investigation has found. Israel has also committed crimes against humanity in both Gaza and the West Bank, according to the report.
It is serious for Israel that so many different investigations are coming to largely the same result, says Professor Jan Hallenberg at the Institute for Foreign Policy.
Terror-listed Hamas and six other Palestinian armed groups committed brutal war crimes during the 7 October attack on Israel, the investigators have found – including murder, torture, and sexual violence.
"Remarkable"
Since then, Israel has responded with a warfare consisting of a "broad and systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Gaza", according to the report. Israel is using starvation as a method of warfare, the commission alleges – a procedure that will affect Gaza's children "for decades to come".
Israel has not cooperated, according to the UN. Instead, the country is said to have actively hindered the investigation, including by not granting the commission access to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Israel's UN delegation in Geneva has already condemned the report's conclusions as part of a "political agenda" against the country. Very unfortunate, Jan Hallenberg believes.
As a researcher and analyst, it strikes me as remarkable that Israel is not cooperating with a UN investigation, he says.
The consequences are that Israel is becoming increasingly isolated, which is unfortunate for both Israel and the prospects for peace in the future.
Pressure on the USA
On the battlefield, the report – despite its gravity – is not expected to have any impact. But for the USA as an ally, the UN's conclusions mean that supporting Israel is becoming increasingly difficult to justify, Hallenberg predicts.
This puts pressure on the USA, he says.
Logically, it will become increasingly difficult for the USA to claim that Israel has not broken the laws of war, to give unconditional support to Israel's warfare.
The report – produced by an independent commission led by the UN's former chief of human rights, Navi Pillay – is the first in-depth UN investigation since the war started in October. The conclusions are expected to be used as a basis by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the ongoing process against Israel in The Hague.
The independent UN report is based on interviews with victims and witnesses, as well as thousands of verified open sources, satellite images, and forensic reports.
The report finds that terror-listed Hamas committed extensive war crimes during its large-scale attack on Israel on 7 October, which sparked the war. Women's bodies were used as trophies by male perpetrators, among other things. Taking hostages is also a war crime, the report finds.
In the months that have followed, Israel has committed war crimes and human rights violations, according to the report. Among other things, starvation has been used as a weapon, and civilians have been deliberately attacked. Israeli forces are also accused of forced displacement, sexual violence, torture, arbitrary detention, and "gender persecution" targeting Palestinian men and boys.
The investigation commission is led by the South African judge Navi Pillay, former high commissioner for human rights in the UN General Assembly. It also includes experienced UN experts Miloon Kothari and Chris Sidoti.
"It is absolutely necessary that all those who have committed crimes are held accountable", Pillay emphasizes in the report.
Source: OHCHR
