UN experts accuse Israel of ‘extermination' in attacks on Gaza schools, religious sites

Al Arabiya

19 hours ago

An independent United Nations commission said Tuesday that Israeli attacks on schools, religious sites, and cultural institutions in Gaza amount to war crimes and the crime against humanity of seeking to exterminate Palestinians.
'Israel has obliterated Gaza's education system and destroyed over half of all religious and cultural sites in the Gaza Strip,' the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a report.
It accused Israeli forces of committing 'war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians and wilful killing,' in attacks on educational facilities that caused civilian casualties.
'In killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites, Israeli security forces committed the crime against humanity of extermination,' the report said.
While the destruction of cultural property, including educational facilities, was not in itself a genocidal act, the report added, 'evidence of such conduct may nevertheless infer genocidal intent to destroy a protected group.'
Commission chair Navi Pillay said in a statement: 'We are seeing more and more indications that Israel is carrying out a concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life in Gaza.'
'Children in Gaza have lost their childhood,' she said. 'They are forced to worry about survival amid attacks, uncertainty, starvation, and subhuman living conditions.'
The three-member commission said Israeli attacks 'targeted religious sites that served as places of refuge, killing hundreds of people, including women and children.'
The commission was set up by the UN to investigate violations of humanitarian and human rights law in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
In May, UN humanitarian relief chief Tom Fletcher urged UN Security Council members to take action 'to prevent genocide' in Gaza. Israel has denied committing genocide.
Fletcher also demanded that Israel lift its aid blockade on Gaza, where the UN says the entire population of more than two million people is at risk of famine.
'For those killed and those whose voices are silenced: what more evidence do you need now?' Fletcher said on May 14. 'Will you act — decisively — to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law?'
The UN commission's report focused primarily on Gaza but also addressed Israeli actions in the occupied Palestinian territories more broadly, including East Jerusalem and inside Israel.
It said Israel had 'done little' to prevent or prosecute Jewish settlers in the West Bank who 'intentionally targeted educational facilities and students to terrorise communities and force them to leave their homes.'
The report also said Israeli authorities had intimidated and, in some cases, detained Israeli and Palestinian teachers and students who expressed concern or solidarity with Gaza's civilian population.
The commission urged Israel to stop attacking cultural, religious, and educational institutions, 'immediately end its unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory,' and cease all settlement activity.
It also said the Israeli government should comply fully with the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice, which require Israel 'to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide against people in Gaza' and to allow the entry of humanitarian aid.
The panel also called on Hamas to 'cease using civilian objects for military purposes.'
Hamas fighters launched an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,218 people — mostly civilians — according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's subsequent offensive has killed at least 54,880 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in Gaza. The UN considers those figures reliable.