New Delhi
16 September 2009
A United Nations (UN) panel's investigation of the Gaza conflict concluded that
the killings of about 1,400 Palestinians by the Israeli armed forces was a "deliberately
disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorise a civilian population".
It recommended the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Gaza to the International
Criminal Court (ICC) and also asked the ICC prosecutor to make a legal determination as
expeditiously as possible, in the interests of accountability and peace. Over half of the
casualties of the Gaza conflict between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009 were
civilians, including 252 young children.
The report, a copy of which is available with this newspaper, found many instances of
deliberate attacks on civilians and use of human shields, which, the report said,
constituted a war crime. It concluded that the continued construction of settlements in
Occupied Palestinian Territories constituted a violation, and stressed that "ending
[Israeli] occupation [of Gaza and West Bank] is a prerequisite" for the return of a
dignified life for Palestinians and a peaceful solution of the conflict.
The UN panel recommended Israel to allow freedom of movement for Palestinians within
the West Bank including East Jerusalem, between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,
and between the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the outside world, and to
undertake a moratorium in the use of white phosphorous. The international community, it
added, should assert formally and unequivocally that such violence should not be
overlooked and should be condemned. It also asked the Palestinian armed groups to
release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on humanitarian grounds and to renounce attacks on
Israeli civilians.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson's remarks, made available here by the Israeli
Embassy, described the report's findings and recommendations as one-sided. "Israel is
appalled and disappointed[,]" the spokesperson said, adding that the report "barely
disguises its goal of instigating a political campaign against Israel, and in its
recommendations seeks to involve the Security Council, the General Assembly the
International Criminal Court, the Human Rights Council, and the entire international
community in such a campaign."
On 3 April 2009 the president of the UN Human Rights Council established the UN Fact
Finding Mission on the Gaza conflict with the mandate to investigate violations of
international laws before, during or after the conflict. Justice Richard Goldstone, a former
judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, headed the panel, which had three other
members: Prof Christine Chinkin from the London School of Economics; Pakistani
Supreme Court advocate Hina Jilani; and Col Desmond Travers, a former officer in
Ireland's defence forces. They released the report on Tuesday.
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