ISRAEL COMMITTED CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: UN
Israel may have committed crimes against humanity in responding to last year’s unrest in Gaza, a UN probe released on Thursday has said.
geneva — United Nations investigators said on Thursday Israeli security forces may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in killing 189 Palestinians and wounding more than 6,100 at weekly protests in Gaza last year.
The independent panel said it had confidential information about those it believes to be responsible for the killings, including snipers and commanders.
“The Israeli security forces killed and maimed Palestinian demonstrators who did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to others when they were shot, nor were they directly participating in hostilities,” it said in its report.
Israel rejected the report as a “theatre of the absurd”.
In a statement, acting foreign minister Israel Katz called it “another hostile, mendacious and slanted report against the state of Israel ... No one can deny Israel the right of self-defence and the obligation to defend its citizens and borders from violent attacks”.
Protests have been held at the frontier between Israel and the Gaza Strip since last year, calling for the easing of an Israeli blockade of the territory and recognition of the right of Palestinian refugees there to return to homes in Israel.
Israel has claimed its forces opened fire to protect the frontier from incursions and attacks.
The latest report, covering the period from March 30-December 31 2018, to the UN Human Rights Council was based on hundreds of interviews with victims and witnesses, as well as medical records, video and drone footage, and photographs.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet should share the findings with the International Criminal Court (ICC), it said. The Hague-based court opened a preliminary investi-
gation into allegations of Israeli human rights abuses on Palestinian territory in 2015.
The Gaza Strip is home to 2 million Palestinians, the majority of them stateless descendants of people who were driven out of Israel on
its founding in 1948.
The panel, led by Argentine legal expert Santiago Canton, said individual members of the Israeli security forces killed and gravely injured civilians who were “neither directly participating in hostilities nor posing an imminent threat”.
“Some of these violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity and must be immediately investigated by Israel,” Canton said.
Thirty-five children, two journalists and three “clearly-marked” paramedics were among those killed by Israeli forces, in violation of international humanitarian law, it said.
In the ongoing border protests dubbed ‘The Great March of Return’, Gazans are calling for the right to return to lands from which their ancestors fled or were forced to flee.
Protesters are also calling for an end to a grinding Israeli-led blockade of Gaza which the World Bank says has reduced the territory to a state of economic collapse. geneva — Saudi Arabia has said that its stance is consistent in supporting Yemen, its people and its legitimate government in confronting the Iran-backed terrorist Houthi militia, which is the main cause of the conflict in Yemen.
“The Kingdom continues to provide all forms of support and assistance to the brotherly people of Yemen,” Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel bin Ahmed Al Jubeir told a high-level meeting of the 40th Ordinary Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
According to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Al Jubeir also referred to assistance provided to Yemen amounting to more than $13 billion by January 2019.
In his speech, Al Jubeir pointed out the Saudi position on the Palestinian cause, saying it is firm and categorically rejects any prejudice to the historical and legal status of the city of Jerusalem.
“The Kingdom calls on the relevant United Nations organs and mechanisms, including the Human Rights Council, to fulfill their responsibilities to defend the rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to self-determination and establishment of their independent state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,” the minister added.
The Saudi minister stressed Kingdom’s stand with the brotherly Syrian people and their right to territorial integrity, independence, unity, and free from any foreign forces. It also stresses the importance of finding an urgent solution to this crisis under Security Council resolution 2254, looking forward to continuing support for the efforts of the UN envoy.