‘We have never seen anything like this’: UN Commission of Inquiry head

Discussing Israel’s war on Gaza, UN Commission of Inquiry head Navi Pillay says they “have never seen anything like this, to this extent.”

“Even the attack on UN is unprecedented. The number of victims, unprecedented. It’s never happened before,” she told Al Jazeera in Geneva following her briefing at the UN Human Rights Council session. “The figures are unbelievable.”

She added that the commission will be releasing further reports looking into other issues such as attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza and the war’s effect on the education of children.

The next reports will be delivered before the UN General Assembly in New York, she said.

‘We have never seen anything like this’: UN Commission of Inquiry head

Discussing Israel’s war on Gaza, UN Commission of Inquiry head Navi Pillay says they “have never seen anything like this, to this extent.”

“Even the attack on UN is unprecedented. The number of victims, unprecedented. It’s never happened before,” she told Al Jazeera in Geneva following her briefing at the UN Human Rights Council session. “The figures are unbelievable.”

She added that the commission will be releasing further reports looking into other issues such as attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza and the war’s effect on the education of children.

The next reports will be delivered before the UN General Assembly in New York, she said.

Denying commission access to Gaza ‘a major setback’ for Israel

Sultan Barakat, professor of public policy at Qatar’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University, says that with Israel repeatedly denying the UN commission access to Gaza so it could investigate and obtain firsthand testimonies, it is “a major setback” for Israel.

The ICJ asked the commission on May 24 to report its findings, which will add to the growing evidence against Israel in the ICJ and the International Criminal Court (ICC), he said, adding that he suspects Israel will continue to accuse the international community of “following a systematic anti-Israeli discrimination position”.

“The fact today that they’ve allowed the mother of one of the hostages to speak instead of a diplomat is probably support that they do not really give any weight to the international community’s will and findings,” he said.

“They will continue the way they’re working until they’ve achieved all their objectives.”