Palestinian war crimes

These have included murder, intentional targeting of civilians, killing prisoners of war and surrendered combatants, indiscriminate attacks, the use of human shields, rape,[2] torture and pillage.

[8] Regarding Hamas and its combatants, even if they have a presumptive right to fight against what they term as an "illegal occupation," they must still abide by legal rules of "discrimination", "proportionality", and "military necessity" under international law as conventional states do.

"[13] According to Amnesty International, "the campaign of suicide bombings and deliberate attacks against Israeli civilians by Hamas and other armed groups constitutes crimes against humanity.

Hamas has denied using hospitals to shield any command centre,[17] while it has previously made remarks expressing support for Palestinians refusing to flee areas Israel has targeted.

[30] The IDF stated on 31 July that more than 280 Hamas rockets[31] malfunctioned and fell inside the Gaza strip, hitting sites including Al-Shifa Hospital and the Al-Shati refugee camp, killing at least 11 and wounding dozens.

They said the failed launches reflected poorly assembled rockets as well as the rush to load and fire projectiles before they were spotted by Israeli aircraft.

[citation needed] On 26 May 2015, Amnesty International released a report saying that Hamas carried out extrajudicial killings, abductions and arrests of Palestinians and used the Al-Shifa Hospital to detain, interrogate and torture suspects.

[41][42] On 9 October 2023 Human Rights Watch stated that Hamas's apparent targeting of civilians, indiscriminate attacks, and taking of hostages amounted to war crimes.

[45] United Nations Human Rights chief Volker Türk noted that militant groups' "horrifying mass killings" were violations of international law.

[58] Human Rights Watch has stated that "Hamas and Islamic Jihad are committing war crimes by holding scores of Israelis and others as hostages in Gaza".

[75][76][77] A number of initial testimonies of sexual violence were later discredited,[78][79][80] while Israel has accused international human rights groups of downplaying assault reports.

[86][87][84] The report was not a full investigation, but designed to "collect and verify allegations", and the team stated that their conclusions fell below the legal threshold of being 'beyond a reasonable doubt'.

[88] The UN Commission of Inquiry (CoI) subsequently published a legally mandated report in June 2024 that stated there was "a pattern indicative of sexual violence by Palestinian forces during the attack", but that it was unable to independently verify allegations of rape due to Israel's obstruction of its investigation.