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UN Human Rights Office Condemns Israel's Use of 2,000-lb Bombs Against Gaza Civilians

A new OHCHR report details how Israeli "attacks of an apparent indiscriminate nature" fit a wider pattern for hundreds of such bombings that may violate international laws of war.

The United Nations Human Rights Office released a report Wednesday concluding that the Israeli military's repeated use of heavy weaponry—including 2,000-pound bombs supplied by the United States—in the Gaza Strip has likely violated international laws of war barring the targeting of civilians and disproportionate attacks.

The new report specifically examines six Israeli attacks that the U.N. Human Rights Offices says are "emblematic" of the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) broader assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 37,000 people, unleashed a hellish humanitarian crisis, and destroyed much of the Palestinian enclave's infrastructure—including education, healthcare, and water facilities.

The attacks analyzed by the U.N. took place between October 9 and December 2 of last year and involved the use of 2,000-pound, 1,000-pound, and 250-pound bombs on residential buildings, a market, refugee camps, and a school. At least 218 people were killed in the six Israeli attacks, the U.N. found, and evidence suggests the actual number of fatalities "could be much higher."

The report says Israeli forces used roughly nine 2,000-pound bombs in a December 2 attack on a neighborhood in Gaza City, causing destruction across a distance of 130 meters.

"These attacks of an apparent indiscriminate nature are among hundreds of a similar nature, giving rise to the appearance of a pattern of attacks over months," the report states. "The pattern of Israeli strikes exemplified by the six incidents above indicates that the IDF may have systematically violated the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack—fundamental principles of international humanitarian law on the conduct of hostilities—in the course of its attacks in Gaza since 7 October 2023."

"The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimize to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel's bombing campaign."

Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement Wednesday that "the requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimize to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel's bombing campaign."

The human rights office's report is the latest of several recent U.N. analyses accusing Israeli forces of committing grave war crimes in Gaza—including torture, using starvation as a weapon of war, and genocide—as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demands more weaponry from the U.S. to continue its devastating assault.

Reuters reported Wednesday that "Israeli tanks backed by warplanes and drones advanced deeper into the western part of the Gaza Strip city of Rafah," killing at least eight people and forcing more residents to run for their lives. At least a million people have fled Rafah since Israel began invading the city last month.

"Residents said the tanks moved into five neighborhoods after midnight," Reuters noted Wednesday. "Heavy shelling and gunfire hit the tents of displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area, further to the west of the coastal enclave... Residents said Israeli army forces blew up several homes in western Rafah, which had sheltered over half of Gaza's 2.3 million people before last month, when Israel began its ground offensive and forced most of the population to head northwards."

A Palestinian boy sits as people search the rubble of a family destroyed in overnight Israeli strikes in the al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 18, 2024.

 (Photo: Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)

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