A Palestinian demonstrator uses a sling to hurl back a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops during a protest at the Israel-Gaza border fence, in the central Gaza Strip January 25, 2019. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa The United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) independent commission issued a report on Feb. 28 stating Israel may have committed war crimes during the Israel-Gaza border protests in 2018.
The report states that Israeli forces fired at Gazan civilians who “neither directly participated in hostilities” and didn’t pose “an imminent threat, and that “these serious human rights and humanitarian law violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity,” the report states.
The report acknowledged that the organizers of the protests encouraged Gazans to bombard Israel with fiery kites and balloons and that protesters threw rocks and explosives at Israeli troops However, the report maintained that the protests “were civilian in nature, with clearly stated political aims.”
Hamas senior official Bassem Naim praised the report, telling Agence-France Presse (AFP), “The report indicates beyond any doubt that the Israeli occupation has committed clear war crimes against the Palestinians who came out to protest peacefully to demand the right of return and lift the siege.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decried the report saying it had an anti-Israel bias.
“The council is setting new records in hypocrisy and lies, out of obsessive hatred of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “It is Hamas which fires rockets at Israeli civilians, bombs and carries out terrorist activities during the violent demonstrations on the fence.”
U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer accused the UNHRC of ignoring evidence that Hamas used “civilians as human shields” during the protests:
BREAKING: UN inquiry accuses Israel of "serious violations of human rights & international law which warrant prosecutions."
This is the fake inquiry on Israel's "large-scale assault" on "civilian protests" on Gaza border.
They ignored our submissions.https://t.co/2hJ23WCmka
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) February 28, 2019
And here's the UN's biased report on Gaza protests that gives a free pass to Hamas, rewarding their cynical use of civilians as human shields precisely to win political support from international bodies like the UNHRC: https://t.co/0YZ0GEXcyz https://t.co/EB3Fck7tFB
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) February 28, 2019
The UNHRC's inquiry on Gaza "civilian protests" completely ignored our submissions:
1."How the Gaza COI Can Overcome the Omissions and Misstatements of Resolution S/28-1"https://t.co/XJniMukrwp
2. "Evidence of Hamas Crimes" Submitted to Gaza Inquiry https://t.co/NAEvVx0sSx
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) February 28, 2019
According to a January report from the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, 80 percent of Palestinians killed by the Israel Defense Forces belonged to Palestinian terror groups, such as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
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