UN Official Accuses Israel of "Extermination

 The head of a United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI), Navi Pillay, said that the Israeli military is carrying out the "extermination" of Palestinians, adding that perpetrators of abuses in the conflict must be brought to account.

She repeated findings from a report published last week that both Hamas militants and Israel have committed war crimes but said that Israel alone was responsible for the most serious abuses under international law known as "crimes against humanity."

She said the scale of Palestinian civilian losses amounted to "extermination."

Israel, which does not cooperate with the inquiry and alleges an anti-Israel bias, chose Meirav Gonen, the mother of 23-year-old Hamas hostage Romi Gonen, to speak on its behalf and criticized the report on the grounds that it did not give due attention to hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7.

Israel's air and ground offensive has killed more than 37,400 people in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory, according to health authorities there.

Israel launched its assault after Hamas fighters stormed across the border into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

The COI is sharing its evidence with the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice, Pillay said, but had so far faced obstruction from Israel.

“The report referred to the forced displacement of more than 1.7 million people, and the committee believes that this also constitutes a war crime. In many cases civilians were not warned of the need to evacuate, and that targeting children, women, the elderly and people with disabilities during displacement is a war crime and premeditated murder,” said Ibrahim Khraishi, Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. in geneva.