A UN-mandated commission of inquiry probing violations of international human rights law accused Israel on 16 April of obstructing its efforts to collect evidence from the victims of Hamas' attack on Israeli military bases and settlements on 7 October.
"So far as the government of Israel is concerned, we have not only seen a lack of cooperation but active obstruction of our efforts to receive evidence from Israeli witnesses and victims to the events that occurred in southern Israel," said Chris Sidoti, a member of a commission of inquiry established to investigate human rights abuses committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
"We have contact with many, but we would like to have contact with more."
Sidoti pleaded with the Israeli government, as well as victims and witnesses of the attack, to cooperate with the commission to conduct its investigation.
According to Israel, Hamas killed 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians on 7 October while carrying out horrific atrocities, including beheading babies.
But rather than aid in an investigation that might confirm Israeli claims, Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva said the victims would "never get any justice or the dignified treatment they deserve from the Commission of Inquiry and its members," describing the Commission as having "a track record of antisemitic and anti-Israel statements."
Israeli officials may fear a thorough and independent investigation of the events of 7 October due to clear evidence that allegations of Hamas atrocities were fabricated and that Israeli forces themselves killed many, if not most, of the Israeli civilians who died that day.
Israeli forces used attack helicopters, tanks, and drones to fire missiles and high-caliber machine guns to devastate their own settlements (kibbutzim), military bases, and border areas to repel the Hamas assault.
Under the Hannibal Directive, this included Israeli forces killing their own civilians and soldiers, including burning many alive, to prevent Hamas from taking them captive back to Gaza. Hamas had taken the Israelis captive to leverage the release of the thousands of Palestinian captives in Israeli jails and to demand that Israel lift its 17-year siege of Gaza.
