The UN commission of inquiry began to proceed with its investigation of war crimes in the Israel-Hamas conflict, which would focus on Hamas sexual violence on Wednesday.
Chair Navi Pillay, chair of the three-member commission of inquiry and a former UN human rights chief and International Criminal Court judge, launched an appeal for evidence and passed the evidence on to the International Criminal Court.
UN Investigates Alleged Hamas Sexual Violence
Pillay called for the court to consider prosecutions amid earlier criticism from Israel and families of Israeli hostages that the UN had stayed silent.
"I'm now sitting as chair of a commission with the power to investigate this. So there's no way we will not do so," Pillay said. She said that some people would provide testimonies about the abuses committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, which would be handed over to prosecutors.
However, Pillay said that Israel still has not responded to cooperate with the commission, which it says has an anti-Israel bias. The commission would have difficulty gathering sufficient evidence to support future charges without access.
Israeli authorities opened their investigation into sexual violence during the most deadly attack on October 7 in Israel and found victims disrobed and mutilated, which concludes a sexual crime as rape.
Military reservists who tended to the bodies in the identification process at the site of the attacks and other testimonies provided evidence about sexual violence.
Hamas denied the abuses and was not immediately available for comment. An Israeli government spokesperson was also not available to comment. The commission was composed of three independent experts ordered to collect evidence and identify perpetrators of international crimes. Pillay said it was about to release a public call for submissions for evidence on Hamas sexual violence.
The ICC's top prosecutor said that the evidence gathered by UN bodies would form the basis for war crimes prosecutions and could be drawn on by the ICC, which has jurisdiction over both the Hamas attack on October 7 and any crimes committed on Palestinian territory as part of Israel's response including bombings in the Gaza Strip.
Pillay has collaborated with Nazhat Shameem Khan, deputy prosecutor of the ICC, since the October 7 attacks to work on the evidence. She said she was impressed with Khan, emphasizing how seriously she wishes to investigate the incidents of sexual violence in Israel.
Pillay's 18-person commission requested the US and Egypt to help convince Israel to grant access to the investigation. However, Washington criticized the commission with other European allies as the investigation showed no end date and a perception among some Western states that it subjects Israel to disproportionate scrutiny.
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Deaths of Reporters on October 7 Attack
Pillay prioritizes the investigation of the killing of reporters, including Reuters' visuals journalist Issam Abdallah, who was killed on October 13 during the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The killing spree in Israel on October 7 has killed 48 reporters, and six more Palestinian journalists were killed in Gaza.
Sherif Mansour, the committee's coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, reported that successive cuts to internet and phone networks occurred during the rising number of media fatalities, which caused an information blackout in Gaza.
