UN experts accuse Israel of 'extermination' in attacks on Gaza schools, religious sites

UN commission accuses Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, targeting schools, religious sites, and civilians.

An independent United Nations commission said on Tuesday Israeli attacks on schools, religious and cultural sites in Gaza amount to war crimes and the crime against humanity of seeking to exterminate Palestinians.

"Israel has obliterated Gaza's education system and destroyed over half of all religious and cultural sites in the Gaza Strip," the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a report.

It accused Israeli forces of committing "war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians and wilful killing, in their attacks on educational facilities that caused civilian casualties.

"In killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites, Israeli security forces committed the crime against humanity of extermination," the report said.

It noted: "While the destruction of cultural property, including educational facilities, was not in itself a genocidal act, evidence of such conduct may nevertheless infer genocidal intent to destroy a protected group."

Commission chair Navi Pillay said in a statement accompanying the report: "We are seeing more and more indications that Israel is carrying out a concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life in Gaza."

"Children in Gaza have lost their childhood," the senior South African judge said. "They are forced to worry about survival amid attacks, uncertainty, starvation and subhuman living conditions."