Palestinians inspect the damage of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, October 27, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

The United Nations said Friday it was concerned that war crimes were being committed on both sides in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The U.N. human rights office cited forcible transfer, collective punishment and the taking of hostages as the war continued into its 21st day.

“We are concerned that war crimes are being committed. We are concerned about the collective punishment of Gazans in response to the atrocious attacks by Hamas, which also amounted to war crimes,” spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a press conference in Geneva.

Follow live updates from the Israel-Hamas war

She said that it was for an independent court of law to qualify whether war crimes had been committed.

Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, kidnapping more than 220 others, according to Israeli officials.

The Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said the strikes have killed more than 7,000 people, mainly civilians and many of them children, leading to growing calls for protection of innocents caught up in the conflict.

Israel has cut supplies of food, water and power to Gaza, notably blocking all deliveries of fuel saying it would be exploited by Hamas to manufacture weapons and explosives.

Israel’s army called on people in the north of the Gaza Strip — nearly half of its 2.4-million population — to head south ahead of an expected ground offensive.

“Nowhere is safe in Gaza. Compelling people to evacuate in these circumstances… and while under a complete siege raises serious concerns over forcible transfer, which is a war crime,” Shamdasani said.

“Israel’s use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas has caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and loss of civilian lives that, by all appearances, is difficult to reconcile with international humanitarian law,” she added.

Shamdasani said a humanitarian catastrophe was unfolding for the people “locked inside Gaza who are being collectively punished. Collective punishment is a war crime. Israel’s collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza must immediately cease.”

She said indiscriminate attacks by Palestinian armed groups, including through the launching of unguided rockets into Israel, had to stop.

“They must immediately and unconditionally release all civilians who are captured and are still being held. The taking of hostages is also a war crime,” the spokeswoman added.

A war crime is a serious violation of international law against civilians and combatants during armed conflict, a “grave breach” of the 1949 Geneva Conventions that established a legal framework for war after the Nuremberg tribunals of top Nazis.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologises for the events surrounding Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s visit at a media availability in Ottawa, Ontario, on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologised Wednesday, September 27, 2023, for Parliament’s recognition of a man who fought alongside the Nazis during last week’s address by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Mr. Trudeau said the speaker of the House of Commons, who resigned Tuesday, was “solely responsible” for the invitation and recognition of the man but said it was a mistake that has deeply embarrassed Parliament and Canada.

“All of us who were in the House on Friday regret deeply having stood and clapped, even though we did so unaware of the context,” Mr. Trudeau said before he entering the House of Commons. “It was a horrendous violation of the memory of the millions of people who died in the Holocaust, and was deeply, deeply painful for Jewish people.”

Mr. Trudeau repeated the apology in Parliament.

Just after Mr. Zelenskyy delivered an address in the House of Commons on Friday, Canadian lawmakers gave 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka a standing ovation when Speaker Anthony Rota drew attention to him. Rota introduced Hunka as a war hero who fought for the First Ukrainian Division.

Observers over the weekend began to publicise the fact that the First Ukrainian Division also was known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, or the SS 14th Waffen Division, a voluntary unit that was under the command of the Nazis.

“It is extremely troubling to think that this egregious error is being politicised by Russia, and its supporters, to provide false propaganda about what Ukraine is fighting for,” Mr. Trudeau said.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week that the standing ovation for Hunka was “outrageous,” and he called it the result of a “sloppy attitude” toward remembering the Nazi regime. Russian President Vladimir Putin has painted his enemies in Ukraine as “neo-Nazis,” although Zelenskyy is Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust.

Speaker of the House Anthony Rota stepped down on Tuesday, September 26, after meeting with the House of Commons’ party leaders, and after all of the main opposition parties called on him to resign.

House government leader Karina Gould said that Mr. Rota invited and recognszed Hunka without informing the government or the delegation from Ukraine, and that his lack of due diligence had broken the trust of lawmakers.

In an earlier apology on Sunday, Mr. Rota said he alone was responsible for inviting and recognising Hunka, who is from the district that Rota represents. The speaker’s office said it was Hunka’s son who contacted NMr. Rota’s local office to see if it was possible if he could attend Zelenskyy’s speech.

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies has called the incident “a stain on our country’s venerable legislature with profound implications both in Canada and globally.” (