A United Nations panel announced Thursday that defense firms selling arms to Israel and the financial institutions that assist them may be held liable for human rights violations and offenses against international law.
“These companies, by sending weapons, parts, components, and ammunition to Israeli forces, risk being complicit in serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian laws,” the members said in their report.
The group of 30 individuals cited a May 24 ruling by the International Court of Justice demanding the cessation of Israel’s operations in Rafah as the basis for their actions.
In the court’s 13-2 decision, prompted by a South African complaint, the judges ruled that the Jewish state was unable to provide adequate evidence that their military forces could protect and sustain the area’s non-combatants.
Jerusalem strongly objected to the determination, arguing that it had overseen the evacuation of almost 1,000,000 civilians to locations that were sufficiently supplied with shelters, food, and medicine before they maneuvered into the southern Gazan city.
In addition to their efforts prior to the incursion, the IDF affirmed that most of the remaining residents of Rafah were in the neighborhoods that they were not planning on deploying to.
The committee’s report comes as the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, accused the Israeli Air Force on Wednesday of failing to take satisfactory measures to ensure that they are only attacking targets that belong to the Hamas terrorist organization.
Israel has maintained that its armed forces always abide by international standards with regard to their battlefield conduct.
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