UN Commission finds war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israeli attacks on Gaza health facilities and treatment of detainees

Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza's healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza, committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel said in a new report today. 'Israel must immediately stop its unprecedented wanton destruction of healthcare facilities in Gaza,' said Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission. 'By targeting healthcare facilities, Israel is targeting the right to health itself with significant long-term detrimental effects on the civilian population. Children in particular have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system.' Regarding the detention of Palestinians in Israeli military camps and detention facilities, the report found that thousands of child and adult detainees, m any of whom were arbitrarily detained, have been subjected to widespread and systematic abuse, physical and psychological violence, and sexual and gender-based violence amounting to the war crime and crime against humanity of torture and the war crime of rape and other forms of sexual violence. Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA