In July 2014, to defend itself against ongoing rocket attacks by Hamas and other Gaza-based militants, Israel launched a large-scale military operation in Gaza. Hostilities continued until 26 August 2014, when a ceasefire came into effect. During the conflict 65 Israeli soldiers plus four Israeli civilians (and one foreign national in Israel) were killed. Casualties amongst Palestinians were far higher: 2,205 Palestinians were killed including 1,483 civilians. The international community supported Israel’s right to self-defence, though some argued that its actions were disproportionate to the threat it faced.
The UN Report on the 2014 Gaza conflict concluded:
- Both Israel and Palestine violated international humanitarian law, which may in some cases amount to war crimes.
- Israel gave insufficient information regarding specific objectives of its military attacks, although some information may be classified and jeopardize their sources.
- There are concerns about the violation of human rights by Israel, whether in the context of hostile activity in Gaza or killings, torture and ill-treatment in the West Bank.
- More questions into Israel’s military policy and regarding the role of senior officials is to be examined by the Commission, such as the use of live ammunition for crowd control within the West Bank and the use of artillery and other explosive weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas.
- The Commission’s investigations also raise the issue of why the Israeli authorities failed to revise their policies in Gaza and the West Bank during the period under review by the Commission.
- The Commission has serious concerns with regard to the inherently indiscriminate nature of most of the projectiles directed towards Israel by these groups and to the targeting of civilians, which violate international humanitarian law and may amount to a war crime.
- The Palestinian authorities have consistently failed to ensure that perpetrators of violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law are brought to justice.
- The Commission “calls upon all parties to fully respect international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including the main principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution, and to establish promptly credible, effective, transparent and independent accountability mechanisms”.