![Israel obstructing access to Hamas attack victims: UN probe](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/04/_2/740x404/pic_1713276485.jpg)
Israel Obstructing Access To Hamas Attack Victims: UN Probe
Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published April 16, 2024 | 07:08 PM
![Israel obstructing access to Hamas attack victims: UN probe](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/04/_2/740x404/pic_1713276485.jpg)
Israel is preventing UN investigators from speaking to witnesses and victims of the October 7 Hamas attack, former UN rights chief Navi Pillay, who is chairing a three-person probe, said Tuesday
Geneva, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Apr, 2024) Israel is preventing UN investigators from speaking to witnesses and victims of the October 7 Hamas attack, former UN rights chief Navi Pillay, who is chairing a three-person probe, said Tuesday.
The unprecedented Commission of Inquiry was established by the UN Human Rights Council in May 2021 to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
"I deplore the fact that people inside Israel who wish to speak to us are being denied that opportunity, because we cannot get access into Israel," Pillay said.
The investigation briefed diplomats at the UN in Geneva on its work and said that since October 7, it had focused on the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas.
"So far as the government of Israel is concerned, we have faced not merely a lack of cooperation but active obstruction of our efforts to receive evidence from Israeli witnesses and victims to the events that occurred in southern Israel," said Chris Sidoti, one of the three members of the inquiry.
The Gaza war began with Hamas's October 7 attack against Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.
The militants also took about 250 hostages, of whom Israel estimates 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 who are presumed dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,843 people in the Palestinian territory, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
- Appeal for witnesses -
Pillay, 82, a South African former High Court judge, said the commission was investigating alleged crimes during the Hamas attack as well as some allegedly committed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank.
Sidoti, speaking via video-link, said the investigation had found it difficult to collect evidence from large numbers of witnesses.
"I use this opportunity to appeal again both to the government of Israel to cooperate, and to victims and witnesses to the events in southern Israel to contact the commission of inquiry so that we can hear what they have experienced," he said.
Sidoti also said the investigators began collecting digital evidence early on October 7, some of which has since "disappeared from the internet".
"If it had not been collected on that day, it would not have been able to be collected," the former human rights commissioner of Australia said.
Pillay -- who served as a judge on the International Criminal Court and presided over the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda -- said the commission had shared more than 5,000 documents with the ICC in The Hague, collected between October and December 2023.
The commission is to present its first findings to the Human Rights Council in June.
In response, to the briefing, Israel said UN representatives had been to Israel to meet with victims and survivors of the Hamas attack.
In a statement to AFP, the Israeli mission said: "The 1,200 people murdered, the women and girls raped, the hostages taken into Gaza, know too well that they will never get any justice or the dignified treatment they deserve from the Commission of Inquiry and its members, who have a track record of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements."
In August 2022, Miloon Kothari, the third member of the commission, apologised for using the term "Jewish lobby", which sparked Israeli accusations of anti-Semitism and calls for his resignation.
Related Topics
Recent Stories
![Cricket: England v West Indies 3rd Test scoreboard](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019914.jpg)
Cricket: England v West Indies 3rd Test scoreboard
![Finance minister briefs Chinese officials on refor ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019922.jpg)
Finance minister briefs Chinese officials on reform agenda, engagement with IMF
![Finland says Russian vessel violated its territori ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019912.jpg)
Finland says Russian vessel violated its territorial waters
![Olympic opening ceremony under way on River Seine](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019266.jpg)
Olympic opening ceremony under way on River Seine
![West Indies' treble strike rocks England in third ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019264.jpg)
West Indies' treble strike rocks England in third Test
![Ukraine court orders detention of suspect in murde ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019262.jpg)
Ukraine court orders detention of suspect in murder of nationalist ex-MP
![Long queues, ticketing problems ahead of Paris ope ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019015.jpg)
Long queues, ticketing problems ahead of Paris opening ceremony
![Rana Sanaullah Khan joins Paris 2024 Olympics inau ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019638.jpg)
Rana Sanaullah Khan joins Paris 2024 Olympics inauguration reception
![Glowing tributes mark 69th birthday of President Z ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019637.jpg)
Glowing tributes mark 69th birthday of President Zardari at Governor's House
![Players unaware of spying scandal as Canada Olympi ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019635.jpg)
Players unaware of spying scandal as Canada Olympic coach sent home: official
![Naqvi hails Pak women cricketers for going down fi ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019013.jpg)
Naqvi hails Pak women cricketers for going down fighting against SL
!['Sabotage' on French rail network before Olympics: ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019634.jpg)
'Sabotage' on French rail network before Olympics: What we know
More Stories From World
-
Biden talks Gaza ceasefire efforts with king of Jordan
5 hours ago -
Sinaloa Cartel co-founder pleads not guilty after stunning US capture
5 hours ago -
Panama says Venezuela blocked ex-presidents going to observe polls
5 hours ago -
Ethiopia mourns victims of landslide tragedy
5 hours ago -
Khan Yunis fighting displaces 180,000 Gazans in four days: UN
5 hours ago -
Trump slams rivals as he meets Netanyahu in Florida
5 hours ago
-
Obama & his wife, Michelle, officially endorse US VP Kamala Harris for president
5 hours ago -
Rain, cooling slow huge blaze in Canada's Jasper park
5 hours ago -
Airbus and Boeing supremacy secure despite turbulence
5 hours ago -
S.African police detain 95 Libyans at suspected military camp
6 hours ago -
'Slapping therapist' guilty over UK diabetic woman's death
6 hours ago -
Panama says Venezuela blocked flight of ex-presidents going to observe polls
6 hours ago