An independent United Nations investigation has found evidence that both Israel and Hamas committed serious war crimes during last year’s war in the Gaza Strip.  It sets up both sides for the possibility of charges at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

The report shifts the burden from individual Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers to those senior politicians and military leaders who formed the policy governing Israel’s use of force.  These conclusions weren’t reached by compiling allegations from the usual groups, such as pro-Palestinian organizations or Israel’s Leftist opposition, but rather from the information reported by a committee led by former Supreme Court Justice Jacob Turkel, that examined Israel’s policies on investigating possible war crimes.

The commission determined that out of more than 2,200 Palestinian deaths caused by IDF attacks, 1,462 of them were civilians, and a third of them were children.  Most of the Palestinians were killed in their own homes during airstrikes.  142 families lost three or more members.

“The fact that Israel did not revise its practice of airstrikes, even after their dire effects on civilians became apparent, raises the question of whether this was part of a broader policy which was at least tacitly approved at the highest level of government,” the commission found.

On the other side, Hamas fired more than 4,800 rockets and over 1,700 mortar shells into Israel, killing six civilians including one Thai guest worker, and injuring 1,600 others.  66 IDF troops were killed.  The report says this indiscriminate firing of rockets and mortar shells from Gaza was intended to sow terror among Israel’s civilians.

Despite that lopsided score, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims it is Israel being picked on, accusing the UN Human Rights Council of being a “hostile body, not objective regarding Israel”.