Alwaght-A United Nations rights body says Israeli regime forces may have perpetrated “war crimes” or “crimes against humanity “in the campaign against Palestinians in Gaza.
In a statement released on Thursday, Santiago Canton, chair of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said Israeli soldiers have breached international human rights during the Gaza unrest.
“Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Some of those violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity,” the statement read.
Elsewhere in its statement, the UN probe said that over 6,000 unarmed demonstrators had been shot by Israeli military snipers at protest sites.
There were reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli troops killed and wounded Palestinians “who were neither directly participating in hostilities, nor posing an imminent threat,” it added.
“The Commission found reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers shot at journalists, health workers, children and persons with disabilities, knowing they were clearly recognizable as such.”
It further stressed that Gaza protesters “were civilian in nature” and that the demonstrations “did not constitute combat or military campaigns.”
It also complained that Israeli authorities had not responded to the UN inquiry's repeated requests for information and access to the occupied lands.
The inquiry's statement is based on 325 interviews with victims, witnesses and other sources as well as reviews of over 8,000 documents, drone footage and other audiovisual material.
Palestinians have held weekly protests on the Gaza border over the siege on the enclave and the right for refugees to return to their homes they were forcibly expelled from during the 1948 creation of the illegal Israeli entity.
More than 260 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces ever since anti-occupation protest rallies began in the Gaza Strip on March 30. Over 26,000 Palestinians have also sustained injuries.
The Gaza clashes reached their peak on May 14 last year, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe), which coincided this year with the US embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to occupied East al-Quds.
