The Israel Government has a “clear and consistent” intention of establishing permanent control over Gaza and having a majority of the Jewish population in the West Bank, said the UN INDEPENDENT INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION on the UN on Palestine, in a report addressed to the United Nations General Assembly.
This central conclusion comes from the inquiries it has made about the evolution of the situation of the land and housing in all occupied Palestinian territories, including east Jerusalem, as well as in Israel.
The Commission is composed of several independent experts who received the commission of investigating from the UN Human Rights Council and last week concluded that Israel is committing a genocide in the Gaza Strip with the murder of civilians, which exceed 65,000 people; mental damage to the Palestinian population; the intentional perpetration of physical damage; and the imposition of measures against births.
Those responsible for crimes
As part of that work, six Israeli ministers have been identified as probable responsible for international crimes related to land and housing, among others.
The former Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, and the current head of that portfolio, Israel Katz, are mentioned as responsible for the actions of Israeli Security Forces in Gaza. The Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, and the Minister of National Settlements and Projects, Orit Strock; They are considered responsible for promoting the construction and expansion of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem; While the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is seen as responsible for the abuse of Palestinian prisoners.
Ultimately, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is pointed out as the person responsible for the behavior of Israel in the entire Palestinian territories and acts that constitute crimes of war, crimes against humanity and crime of genocide.
Gaza
On the Gaza Strip, the report maintains that the Israeli authorities have demolished in a broad and systematic way the civil infrastructure in the corridors and the security zone, continuously expanding the areas under their control until reaching 75% of the total and last July.
Instead of demolished buildings and infrastructure, Israel expanded “security areas” and established corridors, which greatly reduced the territory available to the Palestinians and caused a forced transfer of the population.
The commission, directed by the respected South African magistrate Navi Pillay, affirms that this has serious implications in the Palestinian people's ability to exercise their right to self -determination or in their ability to produce food.
Likewise, it has determined that the Israeli authorities deliberately deprived the Palestinians of Gaza of indispensable resources for their survival, which means deliberately inflict living conditions calculated to destroy the Palestinians of Gaza, “which constitutes an underlying act of genocide.”
Bank and Jerusalem East
As for the West Bank and Jerusalem, the report states that there is no doubt that Israeli policies and actions implemented since October 2023 (including support for violent settlers) show that Israel wants to transfer by force to the Palestinians to “anex indefinite occupation. ”
As proof of this, it is mentioned that Israeli military operations in Jenin, Tulkarem and the refugee fields of Nur Shams, which began earlier this year, “significantly altered the geographical landscape through the destruction of buildings and infrastructure and the displacement of Palestinian residents.”
Some destroyed buildings were designated by the Israeli army as “terrorist households” and demolished as punishment and deterrence, which the commission has concluded that it had no justification from the military point of view, so it was actually a collective punishment.
“The Israeli incursion in the totality of the West Bank and the dispossession and relocation of multiple Palestinian communities are now explicit objectives, of which Israeli officials presume openly. These plans and statements are abominable and must be convicted,” Pillay said.