GENEVA -- A United Nationsreport said on Monday that serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law were committed by both Israeland Palestinian armed groups in the 2014 Gaza conflict.
In some cases, these violations may amount to war crimes, the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict said in the report.
According to the report, at least 142 families lost three or more members in an attack on a residential building during the summer of 2014, resulting in 742 deaths.
"Many witnesses were severely traumatized, and despite that bravely recounted events in which multiple members of their families were killed," the chair of the commission, Mary McGowan Davis told press on Monday.
The fact that Israel did not revise its practice of air-strikes, even after their dire effects on civilians became apparent, raises the question of whether this was part of a broader policy which was at least tacitly approved at the highest level of government, the report found.
One of the new disturbing aspects of the conflict highlighted by the report was huge increase in firepower used in Gaza, with more than 6,000 airstrikes by Israel. In the 51-day operation, 1,462 Palestinian civilians were killed, a third of them children.
"Attacks on homes and families, which led to a large number of family members dying together, when their homes were struck in the middle of the night or as they were gathering for their Iftar meal. These attacks had particular consequences for children. Approximately 550 children died last summer in Gaza," Davis said.
The hostilities also caused immense distress and disruption to the lives of civilians in Israel. Palestinian armed groups fired 4,881 rockets and 1,753 mortars towards Israel in July and August 2014, killing 6 civilians and injuring at least 1,600.
The commission expressed concerns about Israel's extensive use of weapons with a wide kill and injury radius, though not illegal, because their use in densely populated areas is highly likely to kill combatants and civilians indiscriminately.
The commission was also concerned about what appears to be the increasing use of live ammunition for crowd control by the Israeli Security Forces, which raises the likelihood of death or serious injury.
The commission was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in September 2014 to investigate all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the context of the military operations conducted last summer.
