The UN committee investigating the October 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent conflict in Gaza accused both Palestinian armed groups and Israel of war crimes and said Israel’s war actions included crimes against humanity.
In a report released Wednesday, a three-member commission led by former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay provided the most detailed UN review yet of the events of October 7 and beyond. The report itself does not contain any penalties, but it provides a legal analysis of actions in the Gaza conflict that may be weighed in the International Court of Justice and other international criminal proceedings. No cooperation The council said it agreed to the investigation and protested the commission’s assessment of its conduct.
The report said Hamas’ military wing and six other Palestinian armed groups killed and tortured people during the October 7 attack on Israel, some with the assistance of Palestinian civilians. More than 1,200 people were killed in the attack, including more than 800 civilians. Another 252 people were taken hostage, including 36 children, the report said.
“Many abductions are accompanied by severe physical, mental and sexual violence, degrading and humiliating treatment, and sometimes even parading abductees through the streets,” the report said. “Women and their bodies are used as trophies by male criminals.”
The committee noted that Hamas has denied all allegations that its forces have committed sexual violence against Israeli women.
The commission also cited extensive evidence of desecration of corpses, including sexual desecration, beheading, mutilation, burning and cutting off of body parts.
But the committee said Israel had also committed war crimes in its months-long campaign to expel Hamas from Gaza, such as by Gaza blockade.
The statement said that Israel’s use of heavy weapons in densely populated areas constituted a direct attack on civilians, had the basic elements of crimes against humanity, ignored the need to distinguish between combatants and civilians, and caused a large number of civilian casualties, especially women and children.
The conflict has killed or maimed tens of thousands of Palestinian children, the committee said, with the scale and casualty rate “unprecedented in recent decades of conflict.”
The committee said other crimes against humanity committed by Israel in Gaza include “extermination, murder, gender-based persecution of Palestinian men and boys, forced transfer of population, torture and inhuman and cruel treatment.”
The panel said the Israeli army used sexual and gender-based violence, including forced nudity and sexual humiliation, as “operating procedures” during the forced evacuation and detention of Palestinians. “Both male and female victims were subjected to this sexual violence, but men and boys were attacked differently,” the report said.
The statement added: “The attacks on men and boys were intentionally sexual in nature and were in retaliation for the attack that took place on October 7.”
In a statement responding to the report, Israel’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva condemned what it called “systematic anti-Israel discrimination.” It said the committee ignored Hamas’ use of human shields and “outrageously and disgustingly” tried to falsely equate Hamas and the Israeli military over sexual violence.
The committee, whose members include Australian human rights law expert Chris Sidoti and Indian human rights and social policy expert Milon Kothari, said Israel refused to cooperate with the investigation and denied the group access to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Israel also did not respond to six requests for information, the committee said.
The team based its findings on remote interviews with survivors and witnesses and on-the-ground interviews in Turkey and Egypt. The team also consulted satellite imagery, forensic records and open-source data, including photos and videos taken by the Israeli army and shared on social media.
The commission said it had identified those most responsible for war crimes or crimes against humanity, including senior members of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups and senior members of Israel’s political and military leadership, including its wartime cabinet. The commission said it would continue to investigate those who bear individual criminal responsibility and command or superior responsibility.
