Israel rejects UN probe findings on war

Israel on Friday slammed a UN probe which concluded it was deliberately seeking to destroy healthcare in the Gaza Strip and abusing Palestinian detainees, branding the findings “outrageous”.

The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry said Israel had “perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system”.

The country is “committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities”, it added, in a report released Thursday.

Israel said it firmly rejected the allegations, in a statement from its mission in Geneva.

“This latest report is another blatant attempt by the CoI to delegitimise the very existence of the State of Israel and obstruct its right to protect its population, while covering up the crimes of terrorist organisations.

“This report shamelessly portrays Israel’s operations in terror-infested health facilities in Gaza as a matter of policy against Gaza’s health system, while entirely dismissing overwhelming evidence that medical facilities in Gaza have been systematically used by Hamas and the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad for terrorist activities,” it said.

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Israel also rejected accusations of widespread and systematic abuse of Palestinian detainees, amounting to the war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Israel is fully committed to international legal standards regarding the treatment of detainees. This includes prohibition of excessive use of force
and ill-treatment,” the mission said.

It accused the commission of creating an “alternate reality”, and thereby contributing to “the exacerbation of this conflict”.

“We call on states to speak out against this prejudiced approach, which only serves to further stain the credibility of the Human Rights Council and the United Nations at large.”

The three-person commission, established by the UN Human Rights Council in May 2021 to investigate alleged international law violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories, was publishing its second report since Hamas’s October 7 attack a year ago, which sparked the ongoing war.

Israel invaded the Gaza Strip after last year’s October 7 attack by Hamas militants that resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures, which include hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 42,000 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN has described as reliable.

AFP.