The former head of the UN Human Rights Council inquiry into the Gaza conflict, William Schabas, said yesterday that both Israel and Hamas are likely to be guilty of violating international law during the 51-day conflict.
“It would be unusual for only one party to have carried out war crimes without the other side following suit,” the Canadian law expert said.
Schabas told Israel’s Channel 2: “It would actually be a very unusual war if only one side had committed violations of the laws of war and the other side behaved perfectly.”
“That would be an unusual situation and an unusual conclusion. And the greater likelihood is that both sides actually violated international law,” he added.
Schabas’s remarks come only a few days before a UN report on last year’s war is due to be released.
The 51-day war which ended with a ceasefire agreement on 26 August last year, led to the death of nearly 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and the displacement of 100,000 others. Some 73 Israelis were killed, including 67 soldiers.
Schabas resigned from the probe in February after Israel accused him of bias over consulting work he once did for the Palestine Liberation Organisation in October 2012.
He strongly denied that he was beholden to the PLO but said he was reluctantly stepping down to avoid the inquiry being compromised in any way.