Independent UN commission says Israeli attacks on Gaza’s schools, religious sites amount to crimes against humanity, extermination

An independent United Nations commission says Israeli attacks on schools, religious and cultural sites in the Gaza Strip amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Israel has obliterated Gaza’s education system and destroyed over half of all religious and cultural sites in the Gaza Strip — part of a widespread and relentless assault against the Palestinian people in which Israeli forces have committed war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination,” the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory says in a report.

Israel vehemently rejects allegations that it has committed crimes against humanity amid the ongoing offensive in Gaza, which began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel.

It says it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

 

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