United Nations Fact
Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict
"The Mission found that, in
the lead up to the Israeli military assault on Gaza, Israel
imposed a blockade amounting to collective punishment and carried out a
systematic policy of progressive isolation and deprivation of the Gaza Strip.
During the Israeli military operation, code-named "Operation Cast
Lead," houses, factories, wells, schools, hospitals, police stations and
other public buildings were destroyed. Families are still living amid the rubble
of their former homes long after the attacks ended, as reconstruction has been
impossible due to the continuing blockade. More than 1,400 people were killed
during the military operation.
Significant trauma, both immediate and long-term, has been
suffered by the population of Gaza.
The Report notes signs of profound depression, insomnia and effects such as
bed-wetting among children. The effects on children who witnessed killings and
violence, who had thought they were facing death, and who lost family members
would be long lasting, the Mission
found, noting in its Report that some 30 per cent of children screened at UNRWA
schools suffered mental health problems.
The report concludes that the Israeli military operation
was directed at the people of Gaza as a whole,
in furtherance of an overall and continuing policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population, and in a
deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at the civilian population.
The destruction of food supply installations, water sanitation systems,
concrete factories and residential houses was the result of a deliberate and
systematic policy which has made the daily process of living, and dignified
living, more difficult for the civilian population.
The Report states that Israeli acts that deprive
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip of their means of subsistence, employment,
housing and water, that deny their freedom of movement and their right to leave
and enter their own country, that limit their rights to access a court of law
and an effective remedy, could lead a competent court to find that the crime of
persecution, a crime against humanity, has been committed."