The United Nations human rights office said Wednesday that Israel may have committed war crimes through the use of heavy bombs on at least six occasions, an accusation Israeli authorities quickly denied.
The report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights details six incidents of Israel deploying munitions, including 2,000-pound heavy bombs, along with 1,000-pound bombs and 250-pound bombs in densely populated areas of Gaza.
The attacks took place from October 9 to December 2, 2023, in residential buildings, a school, a refugee camp and a market, killing 218 people in total, according to the report.
The UN human rights office said the use of these bombs in densely populated areas of Gaza, coupled with the lack of warning to civilians in five of the incidents, could constitute a war crime as an indiscriminate attack.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said that the requirement under international humanitarian law to minimize civilian casualties was “consistently violated in Israel’s bombing campaign” and that Israeli troops “failed to ensure that they effectively distinguished between civilians and combatants”.
“I call on Israel to make public detailed findings on these incidents,” he said in a statement. “It must also ensure full and independent investigations into these and all other similar incidents, with a view to identifying those responsible for the violations, holding them accountable and ensuring the right of all victims to truth, justice and reparations.”
Israel’s permanent mission to the United Nations denied the allegations and said the report “suffers from hindsight and methodological biases that cast a shadow on the credibility of its legal assessment.”
“There is therefore no doubt that the sole purpose of this Thematic Report is to criticize and isolate Israel, while further protecting Hamas terrorists in Gaza,” officials wrote in a statement. “Israel is fighting Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza, not the civilian population.”
Israel faces international pressure to end the eight-month war in Gaza, where more than 37,000 people have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities, who do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
The International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with senior Hamas officials who the court says were responsible for planning the attack. on October 7 to Israel, which killed around 1,200 people. Hamas also kidnapped around 250 people from Israel, with around 120 still detained in Gaza.
Israel’s use of heavy bombs in Gaza has been a major source of friction between the US and Israeli authorities. President Biden is holding back heavy bombs due to concerns about their use in densely populated areas.
Two of the attacks in densely populated areas identified in the UN report occurred in northern Gaza, in the Jabalya market and the Jabalya refugee camp, in October. The attack on the refugee camp alone killed 52 people and damaged or destroyed 20 buildings.
Another three strikes hit a residential area, a neighborhood and a school in Gaza City, all equally densely populated, according to the UN, while Israel also hit a residential block in central Gaza.
The UN said Israel failed to distinguish between military and civilian targets, adopting a “broad targeting approach” that could violate humanitarian law on distinction and proportionality.
Under humanitarian law, the military is expected not only to minimize harm to civilians by distinguishing between lawful targets, but also to take precautions in certain attacks to ensure that a disproportionate number of civilians are not harmed when striking a military target.
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