Both Israeli forces and Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups have committed war crimes during the war in Gaza.
An independent UN investigation has established this.
"The crimes include murder, gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys, forced displacement, torture, and inhuman and cruel treatment", the commission writes in a report to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council next week.
Israel is further accused of crimes against humanity, both in the West Bank and in Gaza.
The report notes a "broad and systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Gaza". The commission also believes that Israel is using starvation as a method of warfare, which will affect children "for decades to come".
Israel rejects the report as "systematic anti-Israeli discrimination".
Directed against civilians
The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October, in which over 1,100 people died, most of them civilians.
The commission finds that members of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, as well as Palestinian civilians, committed war crimes in connection with the attack.
In the report, it is written that the groups "intentionally killed, injured, took hostages, and committed sexual and gender-based violence".
The actions were directed against civilians and members of Israel's security forces.
The report is based on interviews with victims and witnesses, as well as thousands of verified open sources, satellite images, and forensic reports.
Hindered by Israel
The investigative commission was established by the UN Human Rights Council in May 2021 to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian law in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
During the ongoing Gaza war, it has investigated suspected crimes committed by Hamas' initial terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October, as well as during Israel's subsequent warfare and extensive bombings of Gaza.
Earlier this spring, the investigators accused Israel of actively hindering them from speaking with witnesses and victims about the attacks on 7 October, which was denied by Israel, which instead criticised the commission's work and called it anti-Semitic.
