Several Israeli attacks with particularly powerful bombs in Gaza could constitute war crimes, according to the UN's human rights organ OHCHR.
The assessment is made after an analysis of six attacks last autumn that resulted in a high number of civilian deaths and widespread destruction. The bombs hit residential areas, a school, a refugee camp, and a market, writes OHCHR.
"The rules on choosing means and methods of warfare that avoid or at least minimize civilian casualties to the greatest extent possible seem to have been thoroughly breached during Israel's bombing attacks," says the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk in a press release.
Among the attacks examined in the report is one against the residential area of Ash Shujaiyeh in Gaza City on 2 December. At least 60 people were killed and 15 buildings destroyed, according to OHCHR, which estimates that around nine 900-kilogram bombs of the type GBU-31 were likely used in the attack.
The use of weapons with such a wide impact in a densely populated area "most likely constitutes a prohibited indiscriminate attack", according to the human rights organ.
Israel criticizes the report and claims that its purpose is to "point out Israel and simultaneously continue to protect Hamas terrorists in Gaza".
Israel's ongoing war against the terrorist-stamped Hamas in the Gaza Strip began after the Islamist extremist group's attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Nearly 1,200 people are estimated to have fallen victim to the terrorist attack, most of them civilians, and more than 200 people were taken hostage.
Israel has responded with extensive ground and air offensives against the Gaza Strip, in which over 37,000 people have been killed, most of them civilians, according to the authorities in the Hamas-controlled area.
