Israel's blatant use of heavy bombs in Gaza violates laws of war: UN

Israel's repeated use of heavy bombs in the densely-populated Gaza indicates repeated violations of the laws of war, the UN said, highlighting six attacks that killed at least 218 people.

In a fresh report on Wednesday, the United Nations rights office provided details on the six attacks, which it said were emblematic of a concerning pattern.

They involved the suspected use of up to 2,000-pound bombs on residential buildings, a school, refugee camps and a market.

The rights office, known by the acronym OHCHR, said it had verified 218 deaths in those attacks, which were carried out in the early months of the war on October 7, but said it had information indicating the number of fatalities "could be much higher".

"The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimise to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel's bombing campaign," UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

The report concludes that the series of Israeli strikes, exemplified by the six attacks carried out between October 9 and December 2, suggested that Israel's military had "repeatedly violated fundamental principles of the laws of war", the statement said.

The extent of the damage and the craters visible and seen on satellite imagery indicated that around nine 2,000-pound GBU-31 bombs were used, it said, adding that it had received information that at least 60 people were killed.

'Crimes against humanity'

GBU-31s, along with 1,000-pound GBU-32s and 250-pound GBU-39s "are mostly used to penetrate through several floors of concrete and can completely collapse tall structures," UN rights office spokesman Jeremy Laurence told reporters.

"Given how densely populated the areas targeted were, the use of an explosive weapon with such wide area effects is highly likely to amount to our prohibited indiscriminate attack."

Ajith Sunghay, head of OHCHR's office in the Palestinian territories, said that the report focused heavily on Israeli actions, since the weapons used by Israel's military were far more destructive.

The missiles fired by Hamas, while "absolutely unacceptable", he said, "have not caused significant killing during the war" by comparison.

The report highlighted that unlawful targeting was not only a violation of the laws of war.

When committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, in line with an official state or organisational policy, it "may also implicate crimes against humanity", it said.