GAZA: The United Nations human rights office says Israeli airstrikes on Gaza “may have repeatedly violated fundamental principles of the laws of war.”
A report released Wednesday examined six airstrikes conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces between October and December of last year during the opening weeks of the war in Gaza.
More than 200 people were confirmed by the human rights office to have been killed in the airstrikes, whose targets included residential buildings, a school, a market, and refugee camps.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said it appeared Israel did not attempt to “effectively distinguish” between Palestinian civilians and Hamas fighters in its bombing campaign of Gaza.
“Civilian lives and infrastructure are protected” under international human rights law, Turk said. “This law lays out the very clear obligations of parties to armed conflicts that make protection of civilians a priority.”
The report said the six attacks involved the suspected use of heavy bombs between 113 kilograms and 907 kilograms.
The report also says continued missile attacks towards Israel by Palestinian armed groups are “inconsistent with their obligations under international humanitarian law.”
Health authorities in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip say more than 34,700 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli ground and aerial in October.
VOA
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