A\/79\/232<\/a>)<\/strong><\/em> documenting attacks on medical facilities and personnel, and the treatment of detainees and hostages from 7 October 2023 to August 2024.\u00a0 \u00a0She added that the 7 October attacks against Israel and the subsequent escalation of the conflict were preceded by decades of violence and retribution, dispossession, unlawful occupation and denial of the Palestinians\u2019 right to self-determination.<\/p>\n“7 October should have been a wake-up call to finally end the recurring cycles of violence and retribution, and for peace to become a viable reality,” she said, adding: \u201cTragically, it has instead served as a call to arms for collective punishment and dehumanization.\u201d<\/p>\n
She noted that Israel has carried out \u201chundreds of attacks on hospitals\u201d and \u201cdeliberately killed or wounded” hundreds of medical personnel, including “by sniper fire\u201d. \u00a0These are\u00a0\u201cthe war crimes of willful killing and torture and the crime against humanity of extermination\u201d, she stressed.<\/p>\n
The Commission also documented attacks by Palestinian armed groups on medical staff, facilities and ambulances in Israel on and after 7 October 2023, she said, adding that those acts constitute a war crime.\u00a0She also detailed the situations of the thousands of Palestinian detainees in Israel \u2014 arbitrarily detained, \u201cheld incommunicado,\u201d and used as human shields by the army during exchanges of fire \u2014 as well as the Israeli hostages taken on 7 October, all of whom have been subjected conditions amounting to torture.\u00a0 \u201cHumanity must prevail,\u201d she underscored, calling for an immediate ceasefire, the unconditional release of hostages, an end to the occupation and for the right to self-determination to be realized for Palestinians.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe devastation inflicted over the past 387 days on the Palestinians [\u2026] is an outrage to humanity and everything the post-World War Two international law-based order stands for,\u201d declared Francesca P. Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cIn a manner reminiscent of other genocides,\u201d the understandable rage and trauma from the brutal 7 October events created a \u201cvengeful atmosphere,\u201d preparing Israeli soldiers to become \u201cwilling executioners\u201d in annihilating the Palestinian people, she said.\u00a0 Despite her warning to the Human Rights Council about the risk of genocide in March and a Security Council-ordered ceasefire, the Israeli assault on Gaza has intensified, reducing the Strip to \u201cmass graves from which twisted limbs emerge with signs of IV drips still attached,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Observing that genocide is a process, including \u201ca plurality of acts and actors,\u201d she said that Israel\u2019s intent to destroy the Palestinian people \u2014 \u201cthe totality of the Israeli conduct, directed against the totality of the Palestinian people\u201d and the territory Israel illegally occupies \u2014 is evidenced by its leaders calling for the destruction of Gaza and its onslaught on the Palestinians, as well as the largest land grab in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 30 years.\u00a0 \u201cThis should have been stopped already,\u201d by the Security Council in October 2023 or before Rafah was invaded, she declared, decrying the \u201csilence \u2014 or worse \u2014 the justification of a small but influential number of States in this room\u201d.<\/p>\n
Many delegates called for a ceasefire and the protection of civilian life, while others expressed concern over the Commission of Inquiry\u2019s mandate.\u00a0Some shared steps to hold Israel accountable for its rights violations.<\/p>\n
Speakers for Malaysia<\/strong>, Yemen<\/strong>, Iran<\/strong> and Lebanon<\/strong> noted that the current genocide is decades in the making, with the latter pointing out that Israel has ignored UN resolutions and International Court of Justice rulings continuously.\u00a0 \u201cNo one is ignorant of the massacres committed against unarmed Palestinians,\u201d she said.<\/p>\nCondemning Israel\u2019s continuous violations of international law and its ongoing attacks on the UN, the representative of Norway<\/strong> said that her delegation will spearhead a General Assembly resolution seeking an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the country\u2019s obligations to deliver aid to the Palestinian population.<\/p>\nAlso spotlighting her country\u2019s initiative, South Africa\u2019s<\/strong> speaker said that it had submitted a document to the International Court of Justice in October 2023 containing evidence of Israel\u2019s violation of the Genocide Convention.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, representatives of Albania<\/strong>, Canada<\/strong>, Nauru<\/strong>, Hungary<\/strong>, United<\/strong> Kingdom<\/strong> and the United<\/strong> States<\/strong> all voiced concern over the Commission of Inquiry\u2019s open-ended mandate with the latter, noting that it reflects a bias against Israel.\u00a0 The United States supports Israel\u2019s right to self-defense and regrets that some countries still have failed to condemn the 7 October Hamas attacks, he said, highlighting his country\u2019s diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire.<\/p>\n\u201cDon\u2019t come from the comfort and luxury of New York and your capitals to tell the Palestinian in the room that these reports are one-sided and unbalanced,\u201d said the observer for the State of Palestine<\/strong>.\u00a0 Calling on them to try living in Palestine and watch their lands dispossessed, their movement restricted, or be beaten by settlers under the watch of the Israeli military, she stressed that the Israeli Government will not admit to its genocide and will drown out those who denounce it with accusations of anti-Semitism and terrorism \u2014 as it has done with the UN Secretary-General, the International Criminal Court judges, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the\u00a0United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).<\/p>\nDespite Israeli President [Benjamin] Netanyahu\u2019s efforts, \u201cwe are Palestinians, and we don\u2019t disappear,\u201d she underlined.\u00a0 Member States should either \u201cstand on the right side of history\u201d or at least stop \u201cshielding the perpetrators,\u201d she said, urging them to \u201chalt weapons and arms transfer to Israel now, enforce a ceasefire now, and stop the genocide\u201d.<\/p>\n
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