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UN experts say Israel's strikes on Gaza amount to 'collective punishment' [1]

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Date: 2023-10-12

GENEVA, Oct 12 (Reuters) - A group of independent United Nations experts on Thursday condemned violence against civilians in Israel and deplored the "collective punishment" of reprisal strikes against Gaza.

While condemning the "horrific crimes committed by Hamas", the group said that Israel had resorted to "indiscriminate military attacks against the already exhausted Palestinian people of Gaza".

"They have lived under unlawful blockade for 16 years, and already gone through five major brutal wars, which remain unaccounted for," the group, which includes several U.N. special rapporteurs, said in a statement.

"This amounts to collective punishment. There is no justification for violence that indiscriminately targets innocent civilians, whether by Hamas or Israeli forces. This is absolutely prohibited under international law and amounts to a war crime."

[1/35]A dove flies over the debris of houses destroyed in Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa Acquire Licensing Rights

The group said that taking hostages in the context of hostilities also constituted a war crime.

"The civilians taken by Hamas must be immediately released, pending which their fate and whereabouts must be disclosed," the experts said.

The Israeli death toll had risen to more than 1,300 people since Saturday. Most were civilians gunned down by Hamas in their homes, on the streets or at a dance party.

In pictures: Our latest photos from Gaza and Israel

[1/30]A man carries a wounded Palestinian girl at the site of Israeli strikes on a house, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa Acquire Licensing Rights

Scores of Israeli and foreign hostages were taken back to Gaza.

Israel said on Thursday there would be no humanitarian break to its siege of the Gaza Strip until all its hostages were freed.

Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Nick Macfie

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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[1] Url: https://www.reuters.com/world/un-experts-say-israels-strikes-gaza-amount-collective-punishment-2023-10-12/

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