A UN special committee has said policies and practices carried out by Israel in Gaza are “consistent with the characteristics of genocide”.
The committee, set up in 1968 to monitor Israel’s occupation, said in its annual report that there were serious concerns that Israel was “using starvation as a weapon of war” and was running an “apartheid system” in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is currently investigating claims by South Africa that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza is genocidal.
In the meantime, the ICJ has ordered Israel to take interim measures to prevent genocide from taking place.
The Israeli government is yet to respond to the report by the special committee but has previously suggested that the UN is as obsessed with, and is biased against, the country.
The report by the special committee aimed to investigate Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories.
Composed of representatives from three member states, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Senegal, the committee was formed in the aftermath of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Staff from the UN special committee were unable to visit the areas where they were investigating due to receiving no response from their requests to enter Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and Israel.
According to the Guardian, the committee said its research raised “serious concerns of breaches of international humanitarian and human rights laws in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including starvation as a weapon of war, the possibility of genocide in Gaza and an apartheid system in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem”.
The developments during the 13-month-long conflict had led the committee to conclude that “the policies and practices of Israel during the reporting period are consistent with the characteristics of genocide”, the report said.
“Civilians have been indiscriminately and disproportionately killed en masse in Gaza,” the report added.
It also referred to the “life-threatening conditions imposed on Palestinians in Gaza through warfare and restrictions on humanitarian aid – resulting in physical destruction, increased miscarriages and stillbirths”.
The committee also accused Israel of intentionally using “food as a weapon of warfare”.
“Since the escalation of the conflict, Israeli officials have publicly supported policies depriving civilians of food, water, and fuel, indicating their intent to instrumentalise the provision of basic necessities for political and military objectives,” the report said.
Back in January, the ICJ ordered South Africa to take interim steps, pending the court’s ruling, telling the Israeli government to refrain from acts violating the Genocide Convention, to prevent and punish incitement to genocide, to ensure humanitarian aid reached people in Gaza and to preserve evidence of genocide.
Israel vehemently rejected the court’s ruling, and prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his country's commitment to international law was “unwavering” and the charge of genocide was “outrageous”.
