The United Nations Human Rights Council published a report in which it claimed that more than 6,000 Palestinians were shot by Israeli military snipers along the Gazan border-fence with Israel, using live ammunition.
The report, which was presented by an independent Commission of Inquiry that was mandated by the Human Rights council, condemned Israel for “serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian laws” and stressed that the report’s findings clearly warrant criminal investigation and prosecution of Israeli forces. According to Santiago Canton, the Chairman of UN Commission of Inquiry UNHCR, “The commission has found reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli security forces committed serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. These violations clearly warrant criminal investigation and prosecution and we call on Israel to conduct meaningful investigations into these serious violations and to provide timely justice and reparations for those killed and injured.”
While the commission of inquiry focused on the weekly violent protests, in which thousands of Palestinians actively seek to harm the border’s security-barrier and regularly attempt to cross from Gaza into Israel; their report claimed that “Israeli security forces killed and maimed Palestinian demonstrators who did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to others.” In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz vehemently rejected the report as yet another chapter in the Human Rights Council’s “theater of the absurd.” “This report is another chapter in the theatre of the absurd produced occasionally by the (U.N) Human Rights Council, another hostile, mendacious and slanted report against the State of Israel. It’s a report based on distorted information, in which the facts were not at all checked, whose only purpose is to slander the only democracy in the Middle East and harm our right to self-defense in the face of the terrorism of a murderous organization. The state of Israel outright rejects this report,” said Katz.
While Israel rejected the report, the Islamist Hamas organization that has claimed responsibility for instigating the weekly protests, warmly welcomed the commission’s findings. The internationally recognized terror group, which openly seeks to target Israeli civilians indiscriminately, stressed that the report provides the legal necessity to prosecute Israel’s leaders at the international criminal court in the Hague. Ismail Radwan, a Hamas official, said “We welcome the report that condemns the Zionist occupation, and which proved that they (Israeli forces) committed war crimes and crimes against humanity by targeting children, paramedics and civilians. What we want now is to translate this report into practical steps to bring the leaders of the occupation to the International Criminal Court to sue them for the war crimes they committed.”
It is important to note that Israel has been subject to more condemning reports and resolutions against it by the United Nations Human Rights council than any country in the world, including Syria, Iran and even north Korea.