Israel's tactics in Gaza show 'characteristics of genocide', UN special committee reports
A child sits on the ground amid tents as Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military offensive take shelter at a tent camp set up on a damaged soccer stadium, in Gaza City November 10, 2024. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
In short:
A UN committee has said the way Israel has conducted warfare in Gaza is "consistent with the characteristics of genocide" in a report released on Thursday.
Israel has previously denied all allegations of genocide, saying its actions are focused on eliminating Hamas from power.
What's next?
A case before the UN's highest court is yet to rule on whether Israel's actions formally constitute genocide.
Israel's warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide, a special UN committee said on Thursday, as a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report said Israel's displacement of Gazans amounts to a "crime against humanity".
The UN's report cited Israeli use of starvation as a weapon of war and AI-assisted military targeting with little human intervention as evidence of "disregard of [Israel's] obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants and take adequate safeguards to prevent civilian deaths".
The UN Special Committee pointed to "mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians", covering the period from Hamas' deadly October 7, 2023 attack in Israel to July.
The committee said Israel's siege, blocking of aid, targeted attacks and killing of civilians, despite UN and International Court of Justice (ICJ) orders, was "intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury".
Israel's warfare practices in Gaza "are consistent with the characteristics of genocide", the committee said in the first use of the word by the UN in the context of the current war in Gaza.
Israel, it said, was "using starvation as a method of war and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population".
The Israeli government had no immediate comment, but has previously denied any claims of genocide, saying its actions in Gaza are focused on eliminating militant group Hamas from power.
The UN committee stressed the obligations of third-party countries to urgently act to halt the bloodshed, accusing other countries of being "unwilling to hold Israel accountable and continue to provide it with military and other support".
HRW accuses Israel of war crimes over Gaza displacements
Israeli authorities have caused a forced displacement of Palestinian people in Gaza to an extent that constitutes war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Thursday.
Israel, in response, accused the organisation of using rhetoric that is "completely false and detached from reality".
Palestinians in Gaza City inspect the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, after it was hit by an Israeli strike on November 14.
The report is the latest in a series from aid groups and international bodies warning about the dire humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave.
"Human Rights Watch found that forced displacement has been widespread, and the evidence shows it has been systematic and part of a state policy. Such acts also constitute crimes against humanity," the report said.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said that Israel's efforts are "directed solely at dismantling Hamas's terror capabilities and not at the people of Gaza, unlike Hamas which uses civilians as human shields and embeds terror infrastructure within residential areas".
"Israel views all civilian harm as a tragedy, while Hamas views all civilian harm as a strategy. Israel will continue to operate in accordance with the law of armed conflict," the spokesperson said in a statement.
Hamas denies that it uses civilians as human shields or hides fighters and weapons in facilities such as hospitals and schools.
The law of armed conflict forbids the forcible displacement of civilian populations from occupied territory, unless necessary for the security of civilians or imperative military reasons.
Israel invaded the Gaza Strip last year after Hamas led a terrorist attack on communities in southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and abducting more than 250 as hostages.
Since then, the Israeli campaign has killed more than 43,500 people, according to Gaza health authorities, and destroyed much of the enclave's infrastructure, forcing most of the 2.3 million population to move several times.
The report is the latest in a series from aid groups and international bodies warning about the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
For the past month, Israeli troops have moved tens of thousands of people from areas in the north of the enclave as they have sought to destroy Hamas forces the military says have been regrouping around the towns of Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun.
Human Rights Watch said the displacement of Palestinians "is likely planned to be permanent in the buffer zones and security corridors", an action it said would amount to "ethnic cleansing".
The Israeli military has denied seeking to create permanent buffer zones and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday that Palestinians displaced from their homes in northern Gaza would be allowed to return at the end of the war.
Truce breakthrough 'close' for Israel and Hezbollah
A potential breakthrough in truce talks between Israel and Hezbollah is "close", according to both Lebanese and Israeli officials, but talks have hit a key roadblock.
Israel's Energy Minister Eli Cohen on Thursday, local time, told Reuters Tel Aviv was seeking an assurance it would retain freedom of action should Hezbollah return to border areas where it could pose a threat to Israeli communities.
"I think we are at a point that we are closer to an arrangement than we have been since the start of the war," he said.
Under the proposed ceasefire, Hezbollah would withdraw its fighters and weapons to approximately 30 kilometres from Lebanon's border with Israel.
Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen previously served as the country's foreign minister.
But Mr Cohen said Israel's demand — to allow its military to enter Lebanon if Hezbollah entered this buffer zone — was a key sticking point.
"We will be less forgiving than in the past over attempts to create strongholds in territory near Israel. That's how we will be, and so that is certainly how we will act."
Earlier this week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot labelled Israel's proposed arrangement "not compatible with a sovereign country".
On Thursday, senior Lebanese official Ali Hassan Khalil said Hezbollah had indicated it was ready to withdraw from areas bordering Israel.
Fighting between Israel's military and Hezbollah has intensified since September, as the Netanyahu government's ongoing campaign in Gaza spilled out into a broader regional war.
The World Bank said the Israel-Hezbollah conflict has caused $8.5 billion in damage and losses to Lebanon.
UN to bolster Lebanon peacekeepers if truce agreed
U.N. peacekeepers have continued to hold posts on the Lebanese side of the Lebanese-Israeli border despite the ongoing conflict.
The comments came as Israel carried out air strikes in Beirut for the third day in a row, destroying five buildings.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets were targeting weapons warehouses, military headquarters and infrastructure used by Hezbollah.
Amid signs that a truce may be nearing, on Thursday the United Nations indicated it would bolster its peacekeeping presence in Lebanon once fighting ceases.
UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the extra resources would be deployed to help Lebanon maintain the truce, but would not directly enforce the ceasefire.
He said peacekeepers could help clear explosive devices and reopen roads.
Israel has long accused the peacekeeping mission, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), of failing to implement a UN resolution that ended the last round of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
In the latest conflict, UNIFIL troops have refused to leave their posts because of repeated Israeli attacks that have wounded peacekeepers.
On Thursday, UNIFIL said approximately 30 shots were fired at peacekeepers by two to three unknown people. No-one was hurt in the incident.
Israeli strikes kill 15 in Syrian capital
Fifteen people were also killed in Israeli strikes on residential buildings in Damascus on Thursday, Syrian state media reported, and Israel said the attacks targeted military sites and the headquarters of the Islamic Jihad group.
The buildings targeted were located in the suburbs of Mazzeh and Qudsaya, both in the west of the Syrian capital, SANA news agency reported, citing a Syrian military source.
Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up such raids since last year's October 7 terrorist attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
Commanders in Lebanon's Hezbollah armed group and Iran's Revolutionary Guards based in Syria have been known to reside in Mazzeh, according to residents who fled after recent strikes that killed some key figures from the groups.
Mazzeh's high-rise blocks have been used by the authorities in the past to house leaders of Palestinian factions including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Elsewhere, Lebanon said at least 12 people were killed on Thursday in an Israeli strike targeting the main civil defence facility in the eastern Baalbek area.
"The Israeli enemy strike on a civil defence centre in Douris killed 12 people", the Lebanese health ministry said.
Israeli military said its fighter jets targeted weapons warehouses, military headquarters and other Hezbollah sites.
Reuters/AFP
By：ABC(责任编辑：admin)
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