GENEVA — Both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, a UN inquiry found on Wednesday, saying that Israel’s actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses.

The findings were from two parallel reports, one focusing on the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and another on Israel’s military response, published by the U.N. Commission of Inquiry (COI), which has an unusually broad mandate to collect evidence and identify perpetrators of international crimes committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel does not cooperate with the commission, which it says has an anti-Israel bias. The COI says Israel obstructs its work and prevented investigators from accessing both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel’s diplomatic mission to the UN in Geneva rejected the findings. “The COI has once again proven that its actions are all in the service of a narrow-led political agenda against Israel,” said Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva.

Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

By Israel’s count more than 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage in the Oct. 7 cross-border attacks that sparked a military retaliation in Gaza that has since killed over 37,000 people, by Palestinian tallies.

The reports, which cover the conflict through to end-December, found that both sides committed war crimes including torture; murder or willful killing; outrages upon personal dignity; and inhuman or cruel treatment.

Israel also committed additional war crimes including starvation as a method of warfare, it said, saying Israel not only failed to provide essential supplies like food, water, shelter and medicine to Gazans but “acted to prevent the supply of those necessities by anyone else”.

Some of the war crimes such as murder also constituted crimes against humanity by Israel, the COI statement said, using a term reserved for the most serious international crimes knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians.

“The immense numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza and widespread destruction of civilian objects and infrastructure were the inevitable result of a strategy undertaken with intent to cause maximum damage, disregarding the principles of distinction, proportionality and adequate precautions,” the COI statement said.

Sometimes, the evidence gathered by such UN-mandated bodies has formed the basis for war crimes prosecutions and could be drawn on by the International Criminal Court.

MASS KILLINGS, SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND HUMILIATION
The COI’s findings are based on interviews with victims and witnesses, hundreds of submissions, satellite imagery, medical reports and verified open-source information.

Among the findings in the 59-page report on the Oct. 7 attacks, the commission verified four incidents of mass killings in public shelters which it said suggests militants had “standing operational instructions.” It also identified “a pattern of sexual violence” by Palestinian armed groups but could not independently verify reports of rape.

The longer 126-page Gaza report said Israel’s use of weapons such as MK84 guided bombs with a large destructive capacity in urban areas were incompatible with international humanitarian law “as they cannot adequately or accurately discriminate between the intended military targets and civilian objects.”

It also said Palestinian men and boys were subject to the crime against humanity of gender persecution, citing cases where victims were forced to strip naked in public in moves “intended to inflict severe humiliation.”

The findings will be discussed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next week.

The COI composed of three independent experts including its chair South African former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay was set up in 2021 by the Geneva council. Unusually, it has an open-ended mandate — a fact criticized by both Israel and some of its allies. — Reuters

WILMINGTON, Delaware — President Joseph R. Biden’s son Hunter Biden was convicted by a jury on Tuesday of lying about his illegal drug use to buy a gun, making him the first child of a sitting US president to be convicted of a crime.

A 12-member jury in Wilmington, Delaware — the Bidens’ hometown — found the defendant guilty on all three counts against him.

Hunter Biden, 54, lightly nodded his head after the verdict was read but otherwise showed little reaction. He then patted his lawyer Abbe Lowell on the back and hugged another member of his legal team.

First lady Jill Biden and Hunter’s wife Melissa held his hands as they left the courtroom.

Mr. Lowell said in a statement they would “vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available to Hunter.” Mr. Biden still faces a separate tax case in California.

Hunter Biden, seen at a Wilmington food hall after the verdict, referred Reuters reporters to his statement when asked for further comment but said, “all is good.”

“How could it not be?” he added, motioning to a child on his lap he did not identify.

The trial took place against the background of a Nov. 5 election pitting Democrat Joseph R. Biden against his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, who was himself found guilty at a landmark New York state trial last month.

At trial, prosecutors offered an intimate view of Hunter Biden’s years of struggle with alcohol and crack cocaine abuse, which they said legally precluded him from buying a gun.

After about three hours of deliberation, the jurors found Hunter Biden falsely claimed to be free of illegal drugs when he filled out a government screening document for a Colt Cobra revolver in 2018 and then illegally possessed the weapon.

In a statement Hunter Biden said he was more grateful for the love and support he had received than he was disappointed by the guilty verdict. He said he was “blessed” to experience the gift of recovery “one day at a time.”

US District Judge Maryellen Noreika set no date for sentencing, but added it would usually be within 120 days. That would place it no later than about a month before the Nov. 5 US presidential election.

Joseph R. Biden issued a statement saying he accepted the outcome of the case and would respect the judicial process as his son considers an appeal.

Hours after the verdict, Hunter and his wife and son met the president’s helicopter when it landed at a Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle. The president embraced his son and hugged and kissed his daughter-in-law and grandchild.

Sentencing guidelines for the gun charges are 15 to 21 months, but legal experts say defendants in similar cases often get shorter sentences and are less likely to be incarcerated if they abide by the terms of their pretrial release.

In an audio interview with CNN, a juror identified only as No. 10, said: “In deliberating, we were not thinking of the sentencing and I really don’t think that Hunter belongs in jail.”

The juror said: “No politics came into play and politics was not even spoken about. The first family was not even spoken about. It was all about Hunter.”

FOCUS ON TIGHT WHITE HOUSE RACE
The trial followed the May 30 criminal conviction of Donald Trump, the first US president to be found guilty of a felony.

Mr. Trump, convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal, has claimed without evidence that the multiple criminal prosecutions he faces have been orchestrated by Joseph R.  Biden in a bid to block his reelection.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump’s campaign showed no signs of changing its tack.

“This trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Congressional Democrats had pointed to the Hunter Biden trial, as well as ongoing federal prosecutions of two Democratic members of Congress, as evidence that President Biden was not using the legal system for partisan ends.

The president himself said last week he would not pardon his son if convicted.

The Delaware trial included prosecution testimony by Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, former girlfriend and sister-in-law, who gave firsthand accounts of his spiraling addiction in the weeks before and after he bought the gun.

Prosecutors also showed text messages, photos and bank records that they said showed Hunter Biden was deep in the throes of addiction when he bought the gun and knowingly broke the law by answering “no” to being a drug user on a government screening form.

Mr. Biden’s lawyers sought to show he was not using drugs when he bought the gun and did not intend to deceive because he didn’t consider himself a drug user when he filled out the form.

The defense called Hunter Biden’s daughter, Naomi Biden, who testified that her father seemed to be doing well when she saw him shortly before and after he bought the gun.

The Hunter Biden case was brought by US Department of Justice Special Counsel David Weiss, a Trump appointee.

At a press conference afterwards, Weiss said the case was not just about addiction but also about the illegal choices Hunter Biden made while in the throes of addiction.

“His choice to lie on a government form when he bought a gun, and the choice to then possess that gun. It was these choices, and the combination of guns and drugs, that made his conduct dangerous,” Mr. Weiss said.

Mr. Weiss has also charged Hunter Biden with three felony and six misdemeanor tax offenses in California, alleging he failed to pay $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019 while spending millions on drugs, escorts, exotic cars and other high-ticket items.

Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to those charges. A trial is scheduled for Sept. 5 in Los Angeles. — Reuters

CHARITY OXFAM urged wealthy nations to boost spending on ending hunger ahead of a Group of Seven (G7) annual summit set to kick off in Italy on Thursday, saying that just 3% of G7 military spending could help solve the global food and debt crisis.

The G7 — comprising the United States, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Britain — is set to meet in Italy this week where leaders will discuss issues such as climate change, migration and heavy debt loads in developing countries.

Calculating that eradicating global hunger would require $31.7 billion annually and that the G7’s share of debt relief for the poorest countries would land at a further $4 billion, Oxfam said these together accounted for just 2.9% of the $1.2 trillion estimated spent by the G7 on the military last year.

“Governments are finding their pockets run deep to fund war today, but when it comes to stopping starvation they are suddenly broke,” Oxfam International’s inequality policy chief, Max Lawson, said in a statement.

Some 167 million people worldwide are suffering crisis-level hunger or worse, according to the IPC, a worldwide benchmark for world hunger, which has warned that lack of funds is preventing it from meeting growing demands and will force it to reduce the scope of its work.

Oxfam called on the G7 to halt arms exports that may be used in war crimes, boost taxes for billionaires, provide debt relief to poor countries to free up budgets for development, and fulfill outstanding aid and climate pledges.

It calculated that the seven countries owed some $15 trillion to states in the so-called Global South in outstanding aid commitments and unfulfilled pledges for climate financing, including the “loss and damage” fund.

“Families are struggling to get food on the table, our tax systems are making the rich richer, and the solution is glaringly obvious,” Mr. Lawson said. “We’re talking about a small commitment with the potential for huge impact.” — Reuters