UN officials accuse Israel of attempting 'extermination' of Palestinians in Gaza

The Israeli military may have commited multiple war crimes and has made little effort to protect civilians while relentlessly pounding Gaza in pursuit of Hamas militants, the U.N. human rights office said Wednesday.

In a separate meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, the head of a U.N. Commission of Inquiry said the scale of Palestinian civilian losses amounted to "extermination." The use of weapons with large destructive capacity in densely populated areas "constitutes an intentional and direct attack on the civilian population" and those responsible should be held accountable, Navi Pillay said.

The U.N. report, focusing on six attacks that resulted in mass casualties and destroyed civilian infrastructure, said Israeli forces "may have systematically violated" the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution. No prior warning was issued in five of the attacks, the report says, adding that international humanitarian law clearly defines the obligation to make protection of civilians a priority.

“The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimize to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel’s bombing campaign," High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said.

The report says Israel has begun investigating most of the incidents examined in the report, yet eight months since the first of them Israel has provided "no clarity as to what happened or steps toward accountability."

Israel's permanent mission to the United Nations dismissed the report, saying it presented only a "partial factual picture" that makes any legal conclusions inherently flawed.

Developments:

∎ The U.N. report also accuses Palestinian militants of routinely firing "indiscriminate projectiles" toward Israel, which the report says is inconsistent with obligations under humanitarian law.

∎ More than a dozen rockets were launched from Lebanon into northern Israel on Wednesday and Hezbollah claimed responsibility. Clashes on the border have been heating up in recent weeks, raising concerns the Gaza war will expand deeper into the Middle East.

∎ The White House canceled a high-level U.S.-Israel meeting on Iran set for Thursday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video accusing the U.S. of withholding military aid, two U.S. officials told Axios. The White House, however, told multiple media outlets the meeting had never been finalized.

US Muslim group accuses Biden of 'complicity in this genocide'

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, cited the U.N. report Wednesday in calling for the White House to take “concrete action” to stop the war. Nihad Awad, national director of CAIR, described the Biden administration as the "primary enabler" for thousands of Palestinian deaths.

“We are at a loss for words to describe the Biden administration’s hypocritical position on Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza," Awad said. “History will long remember President Biden’s complicity in this genocide, and it will remain as a stain on our nation’s international reputation for generations to come.”

Attacks on merchant ships in Red Sea on the rise

Urgent action must be taken to halt Yemen-based Houthi rebels from attacking merchant ships in the Middle East, leading industry groups said on Wednesday. The Greek-owned coal carrier Tutor coal carrier, attacked last week by the militants, has sunk in the Red Sea, salvagers confirmed Wednesday.

There have been 10 Houthi attacks on ships so far in June, up from five in all of may May, said Munro Anderson, head of operations at marine war risk and insurance specialist Vessel Protect. The Houthis, like Hamas backed by Iran, began attacking ships within weeks of the start of the war that has been raging for more than eight months. The attacks have virtually crippled shipping in the region.

"It is deplorable that innocent seafarers are being attacked while simply performing their jobs, vital jobs which keep the world warm, fed and clothed," a group of global shipping associations said in a joint statement.

Contributing: Reuters