Palestinian Knesset members call for prosecution of Israel officials

In a Tuesday statement, Palestinian members of the Knesset (MKs) said Israeli authorities “should necessarily be sued over the war crimes” they committed during last summer’s 50-day war.
 
The facts in the report confirm that Gaza suffered disproportionately greater casualties and destruction during the war, the statement added.
 
The report, issued on Monday by the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 war on Gaza, condemned as “unprecedented” the devastation and human suffering caused by Israel’s aggression against the besieged enclave.
 
“The extent of the devastation and human suffering in Gaza was unprecedented and will impact generations to come,” it read.
 
Over 2,140 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed and more than 11,100 others injured during the Israeli war. According to estimates, a third of the civilian fatalities were children. The war ended with a truce in August 2014.
 
The UN report further censured the “huge firepower” used against Gaza, saying Israel launched more than 6,000 airstrikes and fired 50,000 artillery shells on the coastal enclave.
 
The UN Human Rights Council is scheduled to debate the report in the Swiss city of Geneva on June 29. The UN General Assembly is also expected to call for action on the report and to send it to the Security Council.