The main focus of the latest Commission of Inquiry report to the UN General Assembly is Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s health care system. At a press conference on October 30, chair of the Commission, Navi Pillay said, “It’s an outrage that such attacks are continuing unabated.” The report concluded that Israeli authorities have implemented a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s health care system.
Israel/Palestine: UN Commission of Inquiry meets the press in New York
On October 30, 2024 the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory Including East Jerusalem and Israel presented its latest report to the UN General Assembly.
After the presentation, the chair of the Commission, Navi Pilay and commissioner Chris Sidoti shared their findings with the press. (Quotes are lightly edited for readerbility)
Navi Pillay began by expressing her dismay at the ongoing violence.”Every day we witness new horrific attacks on civilians and civilian objects in the Gaza Strip including attacks on medical facilities.
“As we said in our current report to the GA, the complete destruction of gaza’s health care system was the main focus of this report … We believe it’s an outrage that such attacks are continuing unabated and as we said many times before an immediate cease-fire is the utmost priority and should pave the way for peace, justice and accountability for all victims.
“In our October 2023 presentation to the General Assembly, a year ago, we unequivocally condemned the killing of over 1000 Israeli civilians by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, injuring thousands more and taking more than 200 hostages including children.
“We also condemned Israeli military attacks that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians including hundreds of children.
“In June 2024 we presented a comprehensive report and two conference room papers to the Human Rights Council documenting some of the most egregious crimes and atrocities committed by Israeli authorities and Palestinian armed groups on and since 7th October 2023, including killing and maiming, siege and starvation, forcible transfer, sexual and gender-based violence, and attacks directed against civilian populations.
“We continue to underscore the urgency for the parties involved to cease all forms of violence and to ensure that civilians are protected. We call for the immediate and safe release of all hostages. Civilians should never be used as bargaining chips.
Destruction of Gaza’s Health Care System is Concerted Policy
“Our report to the General Assembly examines attacks on medical facilities and personnel and the treatment of detainees and hostages from 7 October 2023 to August 2024 and we conclude that Israeli authorities have implemented a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s health care system.
“Our report also concludes that Palestinian detainees were subjected to persistent mistreatment by Israeli authorities amounting to torture as a war crime and crime against humanity.
“And finally the report finds that Israeli and foreign hostages have been intentionally mistreated by Palestinian armed groups in captivity, whose actions amount to torture as a war crime and crime against humanity.
“We intend to continue pursuing the fulfilment of our mandate, including in relation to making recommendations in particular on accountability measures with the view to ending impunity and with the view of ensuring legal accountability including individual criminal and command responsibility.
“I also draw your attention to a position paper that we have established on our website that fleshes out how the ICJ advisory opinion and its directions have to be implemented … what steps should be taken by member states by organs of the United Nations such as the Security Council …”
Commissioner Chris Sidoti then made a brief statement.
“When we were here a year ago today I certainly didn’t anticipate that we would be back now and this killing would be continuing.
“There has never been a period in this 100-year war in which the fighting has gone on for so long resulting in the deaths of so many people. It is a period without precedent in a war that has been going for a century. We shrug our shoulders because the war has been going on so long, and it’s understandable but regrettable that the impact of the killing of the last almost 13 months is lost on us as a result.
“I mean the statistics are overwhelming. You know the statistics. I only want to give you one…. Of all the killing, the killing that that gets me most is the killing of kids.
“On the 7th of October 38 Israeli children were killed, one of them under the age of two years. Since then, at least as of last week, 13319 children have been killed in Gaza of whom 786 were under the age of one. In addition, 165 children have been killed in the West Bank.
“Now that’s the only statistic I want to give you, and it’s a a statistic that to me says everything.”
Kids aren’t terrorists
“Kids aren’t terrorists. Yet between what happened in southern Israel on the 7th of October and what has happened since then we have had thousands and thousands of kids killed.
“And that’s not even including those who are injured, those who are under the rubble, those who have lost limbs. It’s said that the amputations of limbs of children is the greatest in any conflict in recorded modern warfare.
“Kids who have lost parents. You know, I wonder when the current Israeli prime minister, Netanyahu, talks about finishing off Hamas, I wonder about what the one million children in Gaza will be doing in 20 years time.
“The conflict in Gaza is an Israeli terrorism creation factory and there is no sign of it finishing.
“Navi has referred to the decision of the International Court of Justice. That is a landmark event for us lawyers, an extremely significant event to have a legal determination of the status of the current situation.
“And it’s a way forward because it provides the basis upon which any peace discussions, if they ever occur, can be built. The law provides the foundation and peace negotiations cannot alter that foundation.
“The foundation is the law but that decision provides the foundation upon which bricks can be built and I’m very pleased that our reports have contributed to the decision taken by the International Court of Justice.
“But I’m also acutely aware that our reports, the decision of the International Court of Justice, four resolutions passed by the Security Council in the last 13 months – resolutions, part of the General Assembly – none of those have resulted in a single child not being killed.
“So we can take a lot of pride in the decision of the International Court of Justice, and we do. Member states of the Security Council can cheer because they have actually managed to achieve consensus on four resolutions when mostly they can’t.
“But regrettably, not a single child has not died because of all of these actions, and that’s the reality that confronts the whole United Nations system today.”
Source: UN Human Rights Council
Also see: Healthcare Workers Killed by Israel
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