UN Fact Finding Mission finds strong evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Gaza conflict

calls for end to impunity

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf

15 September 2009

NEW YORK / GENEVA – The UN Fact-Finding Mission led by Justice Richard
Goldstone on Tuesday released its long-awaited report on the Gaza conflict,
in which it concluded there is evidence indicating serious violations of
international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel
during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed actions amounting to war
crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity.

The report also concludes there is also evidence that Palestinian armed
groups committed war crimes, as well as possibly crimes against humanity, in
their repeated launching of rockets and mortars into Southern Israel.

The four members of the Mission* were appointed by the President of the
Human Rights Council in April with a mandate to "To investigate all
violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian
law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the
military operations that were conducted in Gaza during the period from 27
December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, during or after."

In compiling the 574- page report, which contains detailed analysis of 36
specific incidents in Gaza, as well as a number of others in the West Bank
and Israel, the Mission conducted 188 individual interviews, reviewed more
10,000 pages of documentation, and viewed some 1,200 photographs, including
satellite imagery, as well as 30 videos. The mission heard 38 testimonies
during two separate public hearings held in Gaza and Geneva, which were
webcast in their entirety. The decision to hear participants from Israel and
the West Bank in Geneva rather than in situ was taken after Israel denied
the Mission access to both locations. Israel also failed to respond to a
comprehensive list of questions posed to it by the Mission. Palestinian
authorities in both Gaza and the West Bank cooperated with the Mission.

The Mission found that, in the lead up to the Israeli military assault on
Gaza, Israel imposed a blockade amounting to collective punishment and
carried out a systematic policy of progressive isolation and deprivation of
the Gaza Strip. During the Israeli military operation, code-named "Operation
Cast Lead," houses, factories, wells, schools, hospitals, police stations
and other public buildings were destroyed. Families are still
living amid the rubble of their former homes long after the attacks ended,
as reconstruction has been impossible due to the continuing blockade. More
than 1,400 people were killed during the military operation.

Significant trauma, both immediate and long-term, has been suffered by the
population of Gaza. The Report notes signs of profound depression, insomnia
and effects such as bed-wetting among children. The effects on children who
witnessed killings and violence, who had thought they were facing death, and
who lost family members would be long lasting, the Mission found, noting in
its Report that some 30 per cent of children screened at UNRWA schools
suffered mental health problems.

The report concludes that the Israeli military operation was directed at the
people of Gaza as a whole, in furtherance of an overall and continuing
policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population, and in a deliberate policy of
disproportionate force aimed at the civilian population. The destruction of
food supply installations, water sanitation systems, concrete factories and
residential houses was the result of a deliberate and systematic policy
which has made the daily process of living, and dignified living, more
difficult for the civilian population.

The Report states that Israeli acts that deprive Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip of their means of subsistence, employment, housing and water, that
deny their freedom of movement and their right to leave and enter their own
country, that limit their rights to access a court of law and an effective
remedy, could lead a competent court to find that the crime of persecution,
a crime against humanity, has been committed.

The report underlines that in most of the incidents investigated by it, and
described in the report, loss of life and destruction caused by Israeli
forces during the military operation was a result of disrespect for the
fundamental principle of "distinction" in international humanitarian law
that requires military forces to distinguish between military targets and
civilians and civilian objects at all times. The report states that "Taking
into account the ability to plan, the means to execute plans with the most
developed technology available, and statements by the Israeli military that
almost no errors occurred, the Mission finds that the incidents and patterns
of events considered in the report are the result of deliberate planning and
policy decisions."

For example, Chapter XI of the report describes a number of specific
incidents in which Israeli forces launched "direct attacks against civilians
with lethal outcome." These are, it says, cases in which the facts indicate
no justifiable military objective pursued by the attack and concludes they
amount to war crimes. The incidents described include: Attacks in the
Samouni neighbourhood, in Zeitoun, south of Gaza City, including the
shelling of a house where soldiers had forced Palestinian civilians to
assemble; Seven incidents concerning "the shooting of civilians while they
were trying to leave their homes to walk to a safer place, waving white
flags and, in some of the cases, following an injunction from the Israeli
forces to do so;" The targeting of a mosque at prayer time, resulting in the
death of 15 people.

A number of other incidents the Report concludes may constitute war crimes
include a direct and intentional attack on the Al Quds Hospital and an
adjacent ambulance depot in Gaza City.

The Report also covers violations arising from Israeli treatment of
Palestinians in the West Bank, including excessive force against Palestinian
demonstrators, sometimes resulting in deaths, increased closures,
restriction of movement and house demolitions. The detention of Palestinian
Legislative Council members, the Report says, effectively paralyzed
political life in the OPT.

The Mission found that through activities such as the interrogation of
political activists and repression of criticism of its military actions, the
Israeli Government contributed significantly to a political climate in which
dissent was not tolerated.

The Fact-Finding Mission also found that the repeated acts of firing rockets
and mortars into Southern Israel by Palestinian armed groups "constitute war
crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity," by failing to distinguish
between military targets and the civilian population. "The launching of
rockets and mortars which cannot be aimed with sufficient precisions at
military targets breaches the fundamental principle of distinction," the
report says. "Where there is no intended military target and the rockets and
mortars are launched into civilian areas, they constitute a deliberate
attack against the civilian population."

The Mission concludes that the rocket and mortars attacks "have caused
terror in the affected communities of southern Israel," as well as "loss of
life and physical and mental injury to civilians and damage to private
houses, religious buildings and property, thereby eroding the economic and
cultural life of the affected communities and severely affecting the
economic and social rights of the population."

The Mission urges the Palestinian armed groups holding the Israeli soldier
Gilad Shalit to release him on humanitarian grounds, and, pending his
release, give him the full rights accorded to a prisoner of war under the
Geneva Conventions including visits from the International Committee of the
Red Cross. The Report also notes serious human rights violations, including
arbitrary arrests and extra-judicial executions of Palestinians, by the
authorities in Gaza and by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

The prolonged situation of impunity has created a justice crisis in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory that warrants action, the Report says. The
Mission found the Government of Israel had not carried out any credible
investigations into alleged violations. It recommended that the UN Security
Council require Israel to report to it, within six months, on investigations
and prosecutions it should carry out with regard to the violations
identified in its Report. The Mission further recommends that the Security
Council set up a body of independent experts to report to it on the progress
of the Israeli investigations and prosecutions. If the experts' reports do
not indicate within six months that good faith, independent proceedings are
taking place, the Security Council should refer the situation in Gaza to the
ICC Prosecutor. The Mission recommends that the same independent expert body
also report to the Security Council on proceedings undertaken by the
relevant Gaza authorities with regard to crimes committed by the Palestinian
side. As in the case of Israel, if within six months there are no good faith
independent proceedings conforming to international standards in place, the
Council should refer the situation to the ICC Prosecutor.

The full report can be found on the web page of the Fact Finding Mission:

http://tinyurl.com/rd9hdw

For further media information: contact Doune Porter, Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, Tel: 1-917-367-3292 or +41-79-477-2576.
Email: dporter@ohchr.org


* The members of the Fact Finding Mission are:
Justice Richard Goldstone, Head of Mission; former judge of the
Constitutional Court of South Africa; former Prosecutor of the International
Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

Professor Christine Chinkin, Professor of International Law at the London
School of Economics and Political Science; member of the high-level
fact-finding mission to Beit Hanoun (2008).

Ms. Hina Jilani, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan; former Special
Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights
defenders; member of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur
(2004).

Colonel Desmond Travers, former Officer in Ireland's Defence Forces; member
of the Board of Directors of the Institute for International Criminal
Investigations.