JERUSALEM (dpa-AFX) - An independent human rights panel appointed by the UN Human Rights Council alleged on Tuesday that Israel's actions in Gaza constitute genocide, a charge flatly rejected by Israel, which called the report 'scandalous'.
In a new report published against the backdrop of intensifying Israeli military operations in Gaza City, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, urged Israel and all countries to fulfill their obligations under international law 'to end the genocide' and punish those responsible.
'The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza,' insisted Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission, consisting of senior independent rights investigators. 'It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.'
At a press conference in Geneva, the panel's members - who are not UN staff but instead appointed by the Human Rights Council's 47 Member States - explained that their investigations into the war in Gaza beginning with Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel on 2023 October 7 had led to the conclusion that Israeli authorities and security forces 'committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide'.
These acts are killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.
Pillay maintained that responsibility for the atrocity crimes 'lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons', amid 'explicit statements' denigrating Palestinians by Israeli civilian and military authorities.
The Commission also analyzed conduct of Israeli authorities and the Israeli security forces in Gaza, 'including imposing starvation and inhumane conditions of life for Palestinians in Gaza.genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference that could be concluded from the nature of their operations', the panel said.
Israel's Foreign Ministry has rejected the independent Commission of Inquiry's findings as 'fake' in a post on X.
And at a stakeout with journalists in Geneva Tuesday morning, Ambassador Daniel Meron described the commissioners' 70-plus page publication alleging genocide as 'scandalous' and reliant on 'Hamas falsehoods'.
Amid reports of intensifying bombardment in Gaza City overnight, the Middle East crisis took center stage at the UN on Tuesday, with an urgent debate starting at the Human Rights Council prompted by Israeli strikes targeting Hamas political leadership in Doha last week.
UN aid workers continue to report heavy bombing in Gaza City while lifesaving relief is still denied access.
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