UN special committee considers Israel’s war in Gaza “characteristic elements of genocide”
In a report published on Thursday and covering the period from October 2023 to July 2024, a special UN committee, composed of representatives from Malaysia, Senegal and Sri Lanka, estimates that “Israeli policies and practices” applied in the Gaza Strip since the deadly Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, present “characteristic elements of a genocide.”
“Through its siege of Gaza, its obstruction of humanitarian aid, its targeted attacks and killings of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated calls from the UN, binding orders of the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel intentionally causes death and hunger. and serious injuries”The commission also expresses its opinion in the press release accompanying the report.
The authors specify that they were not able to travel to the Palestinian territories. Its findings are based on consultations held in Geneva and meetings in Amman, Jordan, with government officials, representatives of United Nations agencies, NGO leaders, human rights defenders and Palestinian families.
This special UN committee, created in 1968, is responsible for investigating Israeli practices in the occupied Palestinian territories. The report will be presented to the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday. Contacted by Agence France-Presse, the Israeli authorities had not reacted to this publication by the end of the afternoon.
For its part, Washington disapproved “unequivocally” the conclusions of the report. “We believe that this type of wording and these types of accusations are certainly unfounded”said State Department spokesman Vedant Patel.
