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UNITED NATIONS

Press Release:

NEW YORK / GENEVA – The UN Fact-Finding Mission led by Justice Richard
Goldstone on Tuesday released its long-awaited report on the Gaza
conflict, in which it concluded there is evidence indicating serious
violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were
committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel
committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against
humanity.

The report also concludes there is also evidence that Palestinian
armed groups committed war crimes, as well as possibly crimes against
humanity, in their repeated launching of rockets and mortars into
Southern Israel.

The four members of the Mission* were appointed by the President of
the Human Rights Council in April with a mandate to “To investigate
all violations of international human rights law and international
humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the
context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during
the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before,
during or after.”

In compiling the 574- page report, which contains detailed analysis of
36 specific incidents in Gaza, as well as a number of others in the
West Bank and Israel, the Mission conducted 188 individual interviews,
reviewed more 10,000 pages of documentation, and viewed some 1,200
photographs, including satellite imagery, as well as 30 videos. The
mission heard 38 testimonies during two separate public hearings held
in Gaza and Geneva, which were webcast in their entirety. The decision
to hear participants from Israel and the West Bank in Geneva rather
than in situ was taken after Israel denied the Mission access to both
locations. Israel also failed to respond to a comprehensive list of
questions posed to it by the Mission. Palestinian authorities in both
Gaza and the West Bank cooperated with the Mission.

The Mission found that, in the lead up to the Israeli military assault
on Gaza, Israel imposed a blockade amounting to collective punishment
and carried out a systematic policy of progressive isolation and
deprivation of the Gaza Strip. During the Israeli military operation,
code-named “Operation Cast Lead,” houses, factories, wells, schools,
hospitals, police stations and other public buildings were destroyed.
Families are still
living amid the rubble of their former homes long after the attacks
ended, as reconstruction has been impossible due to the continuing
blockade. More than 1,400 people were killed during the military
operation.

Significant trauma, both immediate and long-term, has been suffered by
the population of Gaza. The Report notes signs of profound depression,
insomnia and effects such as bed-wetting among children. The effects
on children who witnessed killings and violence, who had thought they
were facing death, and who lost family members would be long lasting,
the Mission found, noting in its Report that some 30 per cent of
children screened at UNRWA schools suffered mental health problems.

The report concludes that the Israeli military operation was directed
at the people of Gaza as a whole, in furtherance of an overall and
continuing policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population, and in a
deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at the civilian
population. The destruction of food supply installations, water
sanitation systems, concrete factories and residential houses was the
result of a deliberate and systematic policy which has made the daily
process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the
civilian population.

The Report states that Israeli acts that deprive Palestinians in the
Gaza Strip of their means of subsistence, employment, housing and
water, that deny their freedom of movement and their right to leave
and enter their own country, that limit their rights to access a court
of law and an effective remedy, could lead a competent court to find
that the crime of persecution, a crime against humanity, has been
committed.

The report underlines that in most of the incidents investigated by
it, and described in the report, loss of life and destruction caused
by Israeli forces during the military operation was a result of
disrespect for the fundamental principle of “distinction” in
international humanitarian law that requires military forces to
distinguish between military targets and civilians and civilian
objects at all times. The report states that “Taking into account the
ability to plan, the means to execute plans with the most developed
technology available, and statements by the Israeli military that
almost no errors occurred, the Mission finds that the incidents and
patterns of events considered in the report are the result of
deliberate planning and policy decisions.”

For example, Chapter XI of the report describes a number of specific
incidents in which Israeli forces launched “direct attacks against
civilians with lethal outcome.” These are, it says, cases in which the
facts indicate no justifiable military objective pursued by the attack
and concludes they amount to war crimes. The incidents described
include:
Attacks in the Samouni neighbourhood, in Zeitoun, south of Gaza City,
including the shelling of a house where soldiers had forced
Palestinian civilians to assemble;
Seven incidents concerning “the shooting of civilians while they were
trying to leave their homes to walk to a safer place, waving white
flags and, in some of the cases, following an injunction from the
Israeli forces to do so;”
The targeting of a mosque at prayer time, resulting in the death of 15
people.

A number of other incidents the Report concludes may constitute war
crimes include a direct and intentional attack on the Al Quds Hospital
and an adjacent ambulance depot in Gaza City.

The Report also covers violations arising from Israeli treatment of
Palestinians in the West Bank, including excessive force against
Palestinian demonstrators, sometimes resulting in deaths, increased
closures, restriction of movement and house demolitions. The detention
of Palestinian Legislative Council members, the Report says,
effectively paralyzed political life in the OPT.

The Mission found that through activities such as the interrogation of
political activists and repression of criticism of its military
actions, the Israeli Government contributed significantly to a
political climate in which dissent was not tolerated.

The Fact-Finding Mission also found that the repeated acts of firing
rockets and mortars into Southern Israel by Palestinian armed groups
“constitute war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity,” by
failing to distinguish between military targets and the civilian
population. “The launching of rockets and mortars which cannot be
aimed with sufficient precisions at military targets breaches the
fundamental principle of distinction,” the report says. “Where there
is no intended military target and the rockets and mortars are
launched into civilian areas, they constitute a deliberate attack
against the civilian population.”

The Mission concludes that the rocket and mortars attacks “have caused
terror in the affected communities of southern Israel,” as well as
“loss of life and physical and mental injury to civilians and damage
to private houses, religious buildings and property, thereby eroding
the economic and cultural life of the affected communities and
severely affecting the economic and social rights of the population.”

The Mission urges the Palestinian armed groups holding the Israeli
soldier Gilad Shalit to release him on humanitarian grounds, and,
pending his release, give him the full rights accorded to a prisoner
of war under the Geneva Conventions including visits from the
International Committee of the Red Cross. The Report also notes
serious human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests and extra-
judicial executions of Palestinians, by the authorities in Gaza and by
the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

The prolonged situation of impunity has created a justice crisis in
the Occupied Palestinian Territory that warrants action, the Report
says. The Mission found the Government of Israel had not carried out
any credible investigations into alleged violations. It recommended
that the UN Security Council require Israel to report to it, within
six months, on investigations and prosecutions it should carry out
with regard to the violations identified in its Report. The Mission
further recommends that the Security Council set up a body of
independent experts to report to it on the progress of the Israeli
investigations and prosecutions. If the experts’ reports do not
indicate within six months that good faith, independent proceedings
are taking place, the Security Council should refer the situation in
Gaza to the ICC Prosecutor. The Mission recommends that the same
independent expert body also report to the Security Council on
proceedings undertaken by the relevant Gaza authorities with regard to
crimes committed by the Palestinian side. As in the case of Israel, if
within six months there are no good faith independent proceedings
conforming to international standards in place, the Council should
refer the situation to the ICC Prosecutor.

The full report can be found on the web page of the Fact Finding
Mission:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/FactFindingMission.htm

For further media information: contact Doune Porter, Office of the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights, Tel: 1-917-367-3292 or
+41-79-477-2576. Email: dporter@ohchr.org


* The members of the Fact Finding Mission are:
Justice Richard Goldstone, Head of Mission; former judge of the
Constitutional Court of South Africa; former Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and
Rwanda.
Professor Christine Chinkin, Professor of International Law at the
London School of Economics and Political Science; member of the high-
level fact-finding mission to Beit Hanoun (2008).
Ms. Hina Jilani, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan; former
Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of
human rights defenders; member of the International Commission of
Inquiry on Darfur (2004).
Colonel Desmond Travers, former Officer in Ireland’s Defence Forces;
member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for International
Criminal Investigations.
http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/0/9B63490FFCBE44E5C1257632004EA67B?opendocument