UN report finds Israel and Palestinians guilty of serious Gaza war breaches

The report from the UN Human Rights Council released Monday held both Israel and the Palestinians responsible for “serious violations” of international law and possible war crimes in last’ summers Gaza conflict. Israel swiftly denounced the findings as biased after releasing its own report last week. According to the UNHRC report, Israel carried out 6,000 air strikes and fired more than 50,000 tank and artillery shells against Gaza, resulting in 2,462 Palestinian deaths – one third of them children – in 51 days of fighting. Palestinian organizations launched 4,881 missiles and rockets and 1,752 mortar shells of an “inherently indiscriminate nature” against civilian targets in Israel, causing 1,600 deaths and injuries, for sowing terror and fear in the Israeli population, the UNHRC found. The 14 terrorist tunnels uncovered had a traumatic effect on many Israelis.

Israel launched "Operation Protective Edge" on July 8, 2014, after enduring daily rocket and tunnel attacks mounted from Gaza, as well as the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens by Hamas operatives.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu denounced the report as biased and failing to differentiate between Israel’s inherently moral behavior and the actions of “terrorist’ organizations, while opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog said he did not need a UN report to prove that the Israel Defense Forces was the most moral army in the world.