GENEVA: Both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, a UN inquiry found on Wednesday, saying that Israel’s actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses.
The findings were from two parallel reports, one focusing on the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and another on Israel’s military response, published by the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI), which has an unusually broad mandate to collect evidence and identify perpetrators of international crimes committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel does not cooperate with the commission, which it says has an anti-Israel bias. The COI says Israel obstructs its work and prevented investigators from accessing both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel’s diplomatic mission to the UN in Geneva rejected the findings. “The COI has once again proven that its actions are all in the service of a narrow-led political agenda against Israel,” said Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva.
Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
By Israel’s count more than 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage in the Oct. 7 cross-border attacks that sparked a military retaliation in Gaza that has since killed over 37,000 people, by Palestinian tallies.
The reports, which cover the conflict through to end-December, found that both sides committed war crimes including torture; murder or willful killing; outrages upon personal dignity; and inhuman or cruel treatment.
Israel also committed additional war crimes including starvation as a method of warfare, it said, saying Israel not only failed to provide essential supplies like food, water, shelter and medicine to Gazans but “acted to prevent the supply of those necessities by anyone else.”
Some of the war crimes such as murder also constituted crimes against humanity by Israel, the COI statement said, using a term reserved for the most serious international crimes knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians.
“The immense numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza and widespread destruction of civilian objects and infrastructure were the inevitable result of a strategy undertaken with intent to cause maximum damage, disregarding the principles of distinction, proportionality and adequate precautions,” the COI statement said.
Sometimes, the evidence gathered by such UN-mandated bodies has formed the basis for war crimes prosecutions and could be drawn on by the International Criminal Court.
Mass killings, sexual violence and humiliation
The COI’s findings are based on interviews with victims and witnesses, hundreds of submissions, satellite imagery, medical reports and verified open-source information.
Among the findings in the 59-page report on the Oct. 7 attacks, the commission verified four incidents of mass killings in public shelters which it said suggests militants had “standing operational instructions.” It also identified “a pattern of sexual violence” by Palestinian armed groups but could not independently verify reports of rape.
The longer 126-page Gaza report said Israel’s use of weapons such as MK84 guided bombs with a large destructive capacity in urban areas were incompatible with international humanitarian law “as they cannot adequately or accurately discriminate between the intended military targets and civilian objects.”
It also said Palestinian men and boys were subject to the crime against humanity of gender persecution, citing cases where victims were forced to strip naked in public in moves “intended to inflict severe humiliation.”
The findings will be discussed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next week.
The COI composed of three independent experts including its chair South African former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay was set up in 2021 by the Geneva council. Unusually, it has an open-ended mandate — a fact criticized by both Israel and some of its allies.
‘Immense’ scale of Gaza killings amount to crime against humanity, UN inquiry says
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‘Immense’ scale of Gaza killings amount to crime against humanity, UN inquiry says
- UN inquiry finds both sides committed war crimes
- Israel says body is biased, rejects findings
250,000 in southern Gaza hit by Israel’s new evacuation order: UN
- Israeli army Monday issued a new evacuation order for parts of Khan Yunis and Rafah in southern Gaza
- The fighting since then has again uprooted many Palestinians and led to the closure of a key aid crossing
“We’ve seen people moving, families moving, people starting to pack up their belongings and try to leave this area,” UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge told reporters in Geneva via video-link from Gaza.
The agency “estimates that around 250,000 people have been impacted by these orders,” she said, adding: “We expect these numbers to grow.”
Her comments came after the Israeli army Monday issued a new evacuation order for parts of Khan Yunis and Rafah in southern Gaza.
The 250,000 number was UNRWA’s estimate for the people in the area of new evacuation orders in eastern Khan Yunis, Wateridge told AFP.
“We expect that almost all of these people will move from this area,” she said, adding that the agency hoped to get a better idea later Tuesday of the numbers who have physically left.
Monday’s evacuation order followed mass displacement from large parts of Rafah that began with a similar order nearly two months ago, which signalled the start of a long-feared Israeli ground offensive.
The fighting since then has again uprooted many Palestinians and led to the closure of a key aid crossing.
“This is another devastating blow to the humanitarian response here,” Wateridge said.
“It’s another devastating blow for the people and the families on the ground. It seems that they are forcibly being displaced again, and again.”
She pointed out that following the start of the Rafah incursion in May, people had flooded back into the largely destroyed Khan Yunis area.
“And now already, because of the orders last night, the same families are having to move again,” she said.
“There is absolutely no safe place in the Gaza Strip.”
Gaza’s deadliest war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive aimed at eradicating the Palestinians militants in Gaza has killed at least 37,925 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
UN seeks help for tens of thousands of Sudan refugees fleeing to Libya, Uganda
- At least 20,000 Sudanese refugees had arrived in Libya since last year, with arrivals accelerating in recent months
GENEVA: The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday it is expanding its Sudan aid plan to two new countries, Libya and Uganda, as arrivals surge.
Sudan is already the world’s worst displacement crisis with some 12 million forced to flee by the civil war and over 2 million being displaced across borders. The latest expansion of the UN response plan brings to seven the total number of African countries taking in large numbers of Sudanese refugees.
The Libya arrivals raise the prospect that the refugees may continue their journey to Europe — a scenario which UNHCR’s chief has already warned about if aid is not provided.
A UNHCR planning document published on Tuesday showed that the agency expects to receive 149,000 in Libya before year-end. It projects 55,000 for Uganda which does not share a direct border with Sudan. “It just speaks to the desperate situation and desperate decisions that people are making, that they end up in a place like Libya which is of course extremely, extremely difficult for refugees right now,” the UNHCR’s Ewan Watson told reporters in Geneva.
Already at least 20,000 refugees had arrived in Libya since last year, with arrivals accelerating in recent months and many thousands more unregistered, Watson added. At least 39,000 Sudanese refugees had arrived in Uganda since the war began, he said.
Lebanon says Israeli GPS jamming confounding ground, air traffic
- For months, whacky location data on apps have caused confusion in Lebanon
- Israel has taken measures to disrupt Global Positioning System functionality for Hamas and other opponents
BEIRUT: Uber driver Hussein Khalil was battling traffic in Beirut when he found himself in the Gaza Strip — according to his online map, anyway — as location jamming blamed on Israel disrupts life in Lebanon.
“We’ve been dealing with this problem a lot for around five months,” said Khalil, 36.
“Sometimes we can’t work at all,” the disgruntled driver said on Beirut’s chaotic, car-choked streets.
“Of course, we are losing money.”
For months, whacky location data on apps have caused confusion in Lebanon, where the Hezbollah militant group has been engaged in cross-border clashes with Israel.
The near-daily exchanges started after Hamas, Hezbollah’s Palestinian ally, launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, triggering the ongoing war in Gaza.
In March, Beirut lodged a complaint with the United Nations about “attacks by Israel on Lebanese sovereignty in the form of jamming the airspace around” the Beirut airport.
Khalil showed screenshots of apps displaying his locations not only in the Gazan city of Rafah — around 300 kilometers away — but also in east Lebanon near the Syrian border, when he was actually in Beirut.
With online maps loopy, Khalil said “one passenger phoned me and asked, ‘Are you in Baalbek?’” referring to a city in east Lebanon.
“I told her: ‘No, I’ll be at your location (in Beirut) in two minutes’.”
Numerous residents have reported their online map location as appearing at Beirut airport while they were actually elsewhere in the capital.
Since Hamas’s October 7 attack, Israel has taken measures to disrupt Global Positioning System (GPS) functionality for the group and other opponents.
The Israeli army said in October that it disrupted GPS “in a proactive manner for various operational needs.”
It warned of “various and temporary effects on location-based applications.”
Specialist site gpsjam.org, which compiles geolocation signal disruption data based on aircraft data reports, reported a low level of disruption around Gaza on October 7.
But the next day, disturbances increased around the Palestinian territory and also along the border between Israel and Lebanon.
On June 28, the level of interference showing on the site was high above Lebanon and parts of Syria, Jordan and Israel.
An AFP journalist in Jerusalem said her location appeared as if she was in Cairo, Egypt’s capital about 400 kilometers away.
The interference has at times extended to European Union member Cyprus, some 200 kilometers from Lebanon, where AFP journalists have reported their GPS location appearing at Beirut airport instead of on the island.
“Israel is using GPS jamming to disrupt or interfere with Hezbollah’s communications,” said Freddy Khoueiry, global security analyst for the Middle East and North Africa at risk intelligence company RANE.
It is “also using GPS spoofing... to send false GPS signals, aimed at disrupting and hindering drones’ and precision-guided missiles’ abilities to function or hit their targets,” he added.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah has “a large arsenal” of such GPS-assisted weapons, he noted.
The cross-border exchanges have killed more than 490 people in Lebanon — mostly fighters — according to an AFP tally, with 26 people killed in northern Israel, according to authorities there.
Fears have grown of all-out conflict between the foes that last went to war in 2006.
Asked about GPS jamming in northern Israel, where Hezbollah has concentrated its attacks, a spokesperson for Israel’s defense ministry said’s Jerusalem office that “currently, we are unable to discuss operational matters.”
Lebanon’s civil aviation chief Fadi El-Hassan said that since March, the body has asked pilots flying in or out of Beirut to “rely on ground navigation equipment and not on GPS signals due to the ongoing interference in the region.”
Ground navigation equipment is typically used as a back-up system.
Hassan expressed frustration that “in this technological age, a pilot who wants to land at our airport cannot use GPS due to Israeli enemy interference.”
Lebanon is ensuring “the maintenance of ground navigation equipment at all times in order to provide the necessary signals for pilots to land safely,” he said.
Avedis Seropian, a licensed pilot, said he had stopped using GPS in recent months.
“We got used to the situation. I don’t rely on (GPS) at all... I fly relying on a compass and paper map,” he said.
But he said not having GPS, even as a fallback, was disconcerting.
When geolocation data is wrong and visibility is poor, “you can suddenly find yourself in a state of panic,” he said.
“That could lead to an accident or a disaster.”
Slow art: the master illuminator of Tehran
- Aghamiri, 51, is one of Iran’s dozen or so remaining masters of the ancient illumination art of Tazhib
- Tazhib, which traditionally adorns holy books and epic poems, inscribed on UNESCO’s list of intangible heritage
Tehran: Iranian artist Mohammad Hossein Aghamiri sometimes labors for six months on a single design, very carefully — he knows a single crooked line could ruin his entire artwork.
In the age of AI-assisted graphic design on computer screens, the centuries-old tradition of Persian illumination offers an antidote to rushing the creative process.
Aghamiri’s fine brush moves natural pigments onto the paper with deliberate precision as he creates intricate floral patterns, religious motifs and elegantly flowing calligraphy.
The exquisite artwork has for centuries embellished literary manuscripts, religious texts and royal edicts as well as many business contracts and marriage certificates.
Aghamiri, 51, is one of Iran’s dozen or so remaining masters of the ancient illumination art of Tazhib, which was inscribed last year on UNESCO’s list of intangible heritage.
“It is a very unique job that requires a lot of patience and precision,” Aghamiri, a veteran of the craft with over 30 years’ experience, told AFP in his downtown Tehran studio.
“It’s not accessible to everyone.”
Tazhib’s non-figurative and geometric flourishes have traditionally adorned the margins of holy books and epic poems.
The artform dates back to the Sassanid era in pre-Islamic Iran but flourished after the seventh century advent of Islam, which banned human depictions.
Aghamiri says it often takes him months to finish one design and that a single misplaced stroke that disrupts its symmetrical harmony can force him to start over.
When AFP visited, he was working on a so-called shamsa design, a symbolic representation of the sun, about 50 centimeters across with intertwined abstract, geometric and floral patterns.
He said he started the piece over four months ago and aimed to finish it within six weeks, using natural pigments such as lapis lazuli, saffron, gouache and pure gold, from China.
“Gold has a very strong visual appeal,” said Aghamiri. “It’s expensive and it enhances the perceived value of the work.”
Aghamiri hails from a family of artists and artisans with a rich history in Iranian craft traditions including calligraphy, miniature painting and carpet design.
His work has been showcased in museums in Iran and in nearby Arab countries of the Gulf region where interest in Oriental and Islamic art continues to grow.
“Eighty percent of my works are sold in the region, especially in the Emirates and Qatar” as well as in Turkiye, he said.
In recent years, Aghamiri garnered interest abroad and even began teaching the ancient art online to students from across the world, notably the United States.
Soon, he also hopes to hold workshops in Britain for his craft, which he says is fundamentally different from European illumination art, which flourished in the Middle Ages.
European designs, he said, are more figurative and can depict human faces, animals and landscapes, and often illustrate biblical scenes.
UNESCO labelled the Persian art of illumination as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2023, at the request of Iran as well as Turkiye, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
“Twenty years ago, I didn’t have much hope” for the future of Persian illumination, said Aghamiri. “But things have changed, and I see that this art is becoming more and more popular.”
As Iran faces a rare runoff presidential election, disenchanted voters are staying away
- Iran will hold a runoff presidential election Friday, only its second since the 1979 Islamic Revolution
- Only 39.9 percent of Iran’s voting public cast a ballot the previous week
DUBAI: Over 20 years ago, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stood before a crowd at Friday prayers to denounce the United States for its disenchanted electorate.
“It is disgraceful for a nation to have a 35 percent or 40 percent voter turnout, as happens in some of the nations that you see having presidential elections,” Khamenei said in 2001. “It is obvious that their people do not trust their political system, that they do not care about it and that they have no hope.”
Iran now faces what the ayatollah described.
Iran will hold a runoff presidential election Friday, only its second since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, after only 39.9 percent of its voting public cast a ballot the previous week. Of over 24.5 million votes, more than 1 million ballots were later rejected — typically a sign of people feeling obligated to head to the polls but wanting to reject all the candidates.
Meanwhile, public rage simmers after years of Iran’s economy cratering to new lows, along with bloody crackdowns on dissent, including over the mass protests sparked by the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini after her detention by the country’s morality police allegedly over not wearing her headscarf to their liking. Tensions with the West remain high as Iran enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
Now, hardline former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili faces the reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon who likely needs a widespread turnout to win the presidency. Pezeshkian’s supporters warn of dark days ahead under Jalili. Meanwhile, many people are unconvinced that their vote even matters.
“I did not vote and I will not, since nobody apologized because of Mahsa and later miseries that young people face, neither the reformists nor the hard-liners,” said Leila Seyyedi, a 23-year-old university student studying graphic design.
Iranian election law requires a candidate to get over 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff. In results released Saturday, Pezeshkian got 10.4 million votes while Jalili received 9.4 million. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf came in third with 3.3 million, while Shiite cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi had over 206,000.
Most voters for Qalibaf, a former general in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and national police chief known for his crackdowns against students and for corruption allegations, likely will break for Jalili after Qalibaf endorsed him, analysts say. That has put Jalili, a 58-year-old known as the “Living Martyr” for losing a leg in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, in the lead position for the runoff.
But his recalcitrant reputation among Western diplomats during negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program is paired with concern at home over his views. One politician who has aligned himself with the moderates, former Iranian Information and Communications Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, put the choice between Jalili and Pezeshkian more starkly.
“We will not let Iran fall into the hands of the Taliban,” he wrote on social platform X.
But even such dark warnings seemingly failed to have an effect. On the streets of Tehran after the June 28 vote, many said they didn’t care about the election.
“I did not vote, as former presidents failed to realize their promises,” said Ahmad Taheri, a 27-year-old psychology student. “I will not vote this coming Friday either.”
Mohammad Ali Robati, a 43-year-old electronic engineer and a father of two, said Iranian officials’ apparent indifference to people’s economic pressures caused him not to vote.
“After years of economic difficulties, I have no interest in politics,” Robati said, though he held out the possibility of voting Friday.
At the time of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, the exchange rate for Iran’s currency was 32,000 rials to $1. Today, it’s 617,000 rials to $1 — and many have found the value of their bank accounts, retirement funds and other holdings gouged by years of depreciation. It’s nearing its record low of 700,000 rials, briefly reached after Iran’s unprecedented direct attack on Israel in April.
Meanwhile, anger over Amini’s death in September 2022 persists. Her death, in which United Nations investigators said Iran’s government was responsible for the “physical violence” that led to it, sparked months of protests and a security crackdown that killed more than 500 people and saw over 22,000 detained. Less than two years later, hard-liners within Iran’s theocracy have pressed forward with a renewed hijab crackdown.
“The voter participation levels and blank ballots represented a repudiation of regime policies, particularly its crackdown on critics and women who refuse to comply with laws requiring full head covering,” the New York-based Soufan Center think tank said in an analysis Monday.
Pezeshkian has written on X that his government would resist the police enforcement of the hijab along with restrictions on the Internet. However, Tahereh Namazi, a 31-year-old mathematics teacher, said she didn’t vote because neither candidate made a clear pledge on those issues.
Those who didn’t vote and spoke to the AP described their decision as their own, not part of an organized boycott.
Whether voters heed Pezeshkian on Friday remains in question. In recent days, he has repeatedly cited the story of the “selfless farmer,” a tale told to nearly every Iranian child at school about a farmer in 1961 who stripped off his own shirt and set it ablaze to warn a train about boulders blocking the tracks.
Those not taking part in the election believe the train has already crashed.
