Israel has issued a detailed response refuting a recently published report by the United Nations Human Rights Office accusing the Jewish state of carrying out several indiscriminate military strikes against Palestinians in Gaza, lambasting the UN findings as “flawed,” “biased,” and “legally unsound.”

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released its report last week accusing Israel of “war crimes” between October and December as the Israeli military waged its campaign in Gaza following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.

OHCHR’s “Thematic Report” claimed that Israel violated international humanitarian law and should be held accountable.

“In view of Israel’s well documented failure to ensure full accountability for serious violations of international human rights law by its security forces, remedies at the international level are also necessary to address the accountability gap,” the report stated.

In the report, the UN office outlined six “emblematic incidents” in which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) allegedly struck heavily populated areas in Gaza without sufficient concern for civilian well-being. The six strikes highlighted by the report targeted residential buildings, markets, refugee camps, and schools.

Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication. However, Hamas, which rules Gaza, has in many cases prevented people from leaving, according to the IDF.

Another challenge for Israel is Hamas’ widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.

Nonetheless, the UN office claimed that Israel is responsible for “immense” death and destruction in Gaza and alleged that members of the IDF might bear “criminal responsibility” for recklessly killing Palestinian civilians.

In response to the report, Israel published a rebuttal to what it described as a “factually, legally, and methodologically flawed” assessment.

“It [the UN report] commonly relies on partial information and overlooks operational considerations and other aspects crucial to clearly assess the situation,” the Israeli response stated, disputing accusations of war crimes and other alleged human rights violations. 

Israel notably challenged the way that the UN obtained its information, arguing that the OHCHR does not have the relevant “expertise” or the complete “facts on the ground” to make an accurate legal assessment of Israel’s actions.

“The document relies entirely on public information, ignoring the fact that often, information that formed the basis for military
attacks cannot be published,” the Israeli response stated, noting it would compromise ongoing operations and national security more broadly to disclose much of the IDF’s information or intelligence related to its strikes in Gaza.

“Since facts are the basis of any legal analysis, any ambiguity or incomplete information regarding the targets and circumstances compromise the ability to judge the legality of an attack,” the Israeli response added. “Therefore, the chosen methodology by which OHCHR analyzes these strikes, which includes mainly relying on alleged results and media coverage, leads to an inaccurate understanding of which targets were struck, the military importance given to each target, and
the operational constraints. It is clear that OHCHR’s note suffers from these flaws, leading to a misapplication and unjust accusations of violations.”

Israel also defended itself against accusations by the OHCHR that it had violated international humanitarian law.

“Hamas systematically and unlawfully embeds its military assets within heavily populated areas, and carries out its military activities, amongst, behind, and under its own civilians,” the Israeli government argued, noting that according to international law there are circumstances under which “civilian objects” can become “legitimate military targets” when they “contribute to [a] military action by their purpose or use.”

In its report, the OHCHR did not address how it distinguished between civilians and combatants in Gaza, instead focusing on how Israel carried out several strikes on Hamas targets in “a relatively small and dense area” with civilians as well.

The OHCHR also suggested that Israel failed to warn Gazan civilians of impending strikes in all but one of the six incidents it discussed.

In response, Israel reiterated its policy of warning Gazans by dropping “millions of leaflets over areas of expected attacks” and “broadcasting over radio and through social media messages.” In certain instances, Israel noted, the IDF even made “individual phone-calls” alerting civilians that they were in danger.

Israel also called out the UN office for relying on casualty figures from Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza. Experts have cast doubt on the reliability of such figures for systematically overcounting the number of casualties and not distinguishing between civilians and terrorists. In its response, Israel detailed multiple specific examples of the Gaza Ministry of Health releasing incorrect casualty information.

In one example, Israel highlighted how a male commander in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, which is allied with Hamas, was as a “female” civilian. Other examples listed known Hamas fighters as civilians.

Since Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages during their Oct. 7 onslaught, the UN has repeatedly lambasted Israel’s ensuing military campaign in Gaza to free the captives and dismantle Hamas’ military capabilities, calling on Jerusalem to halt its offensive.

Beyond its formal response, Israel’s Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva responded to the OHCHR’s report on X / Twitter.

“OHCHR has been echoing Hamas narratives and spreading unfounded allegations,” the Israeli mission posted. “This report shows the deep-rooted bias against Israel that has existed in OHCHR for decades. Regardless, Israel will continue to operate in accordance with the law, to protect its population against Palestinian terrorists, and bring back home the 120 hostages still held in Gaza.”

About half of the hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7 were either released as part of a temporary ceasefire in November or rescued, some dead and others alive, by Israeli forces in special operations.

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