clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

UN Rights office accuses Israel of violating laws of war in Gaza

June 19, 2024 at 5:21 pm

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk gives a speech at the opening of the 55th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 26 February 2024. [GABRIEL MONNET/AFP via Getty Images]

The UN Human Rights office, on Wednesday, accused Israeli forces of repeatedly violating fundamental principles of the laws of war in their military campaign on Gaza.

In a report assessing six Israeli attacks that caused a high number of casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure, the UN Human Rights office (OHCHR) said Israeli forces “may have systematically violated the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack.”

“The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or, at the very least, minimise to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel’s bombing campaign,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said Wednesday.

Israel’s permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva characterised the analysis as “factually, legally, and methodologically flawed.”

READ: 7 October on Israel, following operations in Gaza did not occur in vacuum: Head of UN Commission