Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoGENEVA / OPT COMMISSION OF INQUIRY PRESSER
STORY: GENEVA / OPT COMMISSION OF INQUIRY PRESSER
TRT: 03:48
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 18 JUNE 2025, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, press conference dais
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Navi Pillay, Chair, Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel:
“Our report concludes that Israel essentially obliterated the education system in Gaza. More than 90 percent of schools and university buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, creating conditions where education for children has been made impossible. These attacks were part of a widespread and relentless assault against the Palestinian people, in which Israeli forces have committed war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians, and willful killing, and the crime against humanity of extermination.”
3. Wide shot, press conference dais
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Navi Pillay, Chair, Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel:
“Israeli attacks in Gaza targeted religious sites that served as places of refuge, killing hundreds of people, including women and children. We emphasized that the damage to religious and cultural sites deeply affects intangible cultural elements, such as religious and cultural practices, memories, and history, undermining the identity of Palestinians as a people.”
5. Wide shot, press conference dais
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Navi Pillay, Chair, Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel:
“We intend to continue pursuing the full fulfillment of our mandate, including in relation to making recommendations, in particular on accountability measures with the view to avoiding and ending impunity and ensuring legal accountability, including individual, criminal and command responsibility.”
7. Wide shot, press conference dais
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Sidoti, Commissioner, Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel:
“Those in leadership positions command positions, bear responsibility for what those under their command do. But accountability also has individual elements. And I think it's only fair that we emphasize to those individuals involved, the nature of the responsibility that they bear and the accountability that may face them in the future.”
9. Wide shot, press conference dais
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Sidoti, Commissioner, Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel:
“We know many of the units responsible for the Commission of War Crimes, and therefore we know who those Israeli soldiers were individually responsible in many cases for the commission of war crimes.”
11. Wide shot, press conference dais
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Sidoti, Commissioner, Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel:
“The aircrew in the bombers that are dropping the bombs and the rockets, the crews of ships off the coast that are shelling parts of Gaza, destroying fishing boats and the livelihood of fishers - the Palestinian people who depend on the sea, the soldiers on the ground who are implementing the strategy of destruction of infrastructure and killing of people in their thousands, those who are far away from Gaza, who are piloting and controlling the drones that are inflicting slaughter on the Gazan people, those who manned the checkpoints to implement a strategy of starvation against the Palestinian people of Gaza. All of these people and their commanders are suspect in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Individually.”
13. Wide shot, press conference dais
Presenting the Launch of the latest report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, the Chair of the Commission, Navi Pillay, today (18 Jun) said Israeli forces in Gaza “have committed war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians, and willful killing, and the crime against humanity of extermination.”
Pillay told journalists in Geneva that the report concludes that “Israel essentially obliterated the education system in Gaza,” as “more than 90 percent of schools and university buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, creating conditions where education for children has been made impossible.”
These attacks, she said, “were part of a widespread and relentless assault against the Palestinian people.”
The former High Commissionner for Human Rights said, “Israeli attacks in Gaza targeted religious sites that served as places of refuge, killing hundreds of people, including women and children,” and emphasized that “the damage to religious and cultural sites deeply affects intangible cultural elements, such as religious and cultural practices, memories, and history, undermining the identity of Palestinians as a people.”
She said, “we intend to continue pursuing the full fulfillment of our mandate, including in relation to making recommendations, in particular on accountability measures with the view to avoiding and ending impunity and ensuring legal accountability, including individual, criminal and command responsibility.”
For his part, Chris Sidoti, who is the Commissioner of the Inquiry, said, “those in leadership positions command positions, bear responsibility for what those under their command do. But accountability also has individual elements. And I think it's only fair that we emphasize to those individuals involved, the nature of the responsibility that they bear and the accountability that may face them in the future.”
Sidoti said, “we know many of the units responsible for the Commission of War Crimes, and therefore we know who those Israeli soldiers were individually responsible in many cases for the commission of war crimes.”
He said, “the aircrew in the bombers that are dropping the bombs and the rockets, the crews of ships off the coast that are shelling parts of Gaza, destroying fishing boats and the livelihood of fishers - the Palestinian people who depend on the sea, the soldiers on the ground who are implementing the strategy of destruction of infrastructure and killing of people in their thousands, those who are far away from Gaza, who are piloting and controlling the drones that are inflicting slaughter on the Gazan people, those who manned the checkpoints to implement a strategy of starvation against the Palestinian people of Gaza. All of these people and their commanders are suspect in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Individually.”
The commission of inquiry is mandated to report to the Human Rights Council and to the General Assembly on an annual basis.
The Human Rights Council decided that the independent international commission of inquiry shall: Investigate in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021; Investigate all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity; Establish the facts and circumstances that may amount to such violations and abuses and of crimes perpetrated; Collect, consolidate and analyse evidence of such violations and abuses and of crimes perpetrated, and systematically record and preserve all information, documentation and evidence, including interviews, witness testimony and forensic material, in accordance with international law standards, in order to maximize the possibility of its admissibility in legal proceedings; Document and verify relevant information and evidence, including through field engagement and by cooperating with judicial and other entities, as appropriate;
Identify, where possible, those responsible, with a view to ensuring that perpetrators of violations are held accountable; Identify patterns of violations over time by analysing the similarities in the findings and recommendations with and of previous of United Nations fact-finding missions and commissions of inquiry on the situation; Make recommendations, in particular on accountability measures, all with a view to avoiding and ending impunity and ensuring legal accountability, including individual criminal and command responsibility, for such violations, and justice for victims; and Make recommendations on measures to be taken by third States to ensure respect for international humanitarian law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, in accordance with article 1 common to the Geneva Conventions, and in fulfilment of their obligations under articles 146, 147 and 148 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, including by ensuring that they do not aid or assist in the commission of internationally wrongful acts.
Download
There is no media available to download.
Related Content
GAZA / GIRLS HUMAN RIGHTS
OHCHR / GAZA ISRAEL
