A/HRC/13/53 resulted in the death of 1,434 Palestinians (960 of whom were civilians), injuries to 5,303 Palestinians, and the death of 13 Israelis (3 of whom were civilians). The mandate of the Fact-finding Mission was as follows: “To investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, after or during.”2 The investigation was carried out over a period of three months by a four-person mission led by Justice Richard Goldstone, former member of the South African Constitutional Court and former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The other members of the mission were Hina Jilani, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan; Christine Chinkin of the London School of Economics and Political Science; and Desmond Travers, formerly an officer in the Irish Defence Forces. 4. The main findings of the FFM report reinforced conclusions reached earlier by an Arab League fact-finding mission3 headed by John Dugard, former Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, and by a range of respected international, Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations.4 The most significant general conclusion reached was that during Operation Cast Lead the attacks by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were aimed at the population of the Gaza Strip as a whole and, as such, constituted collective punishment that violated Israel’s obligations arising out of its “effective occupation”5 of Gaza.6 5. This main finding of collective punishment, together with a series of specific abuses in incidents where the IDF was found to have deliberately targeted civilians and civilian structures, led the Fact-Finding Mission to conclude that crimes against humanity might have been committed by Israel.7 The FFM report also concluded that the rockets fired from Gaza into Israeli territory were indiscriminate, and as such their use constituted war crimes that amounted to crimes against humanity.8 Given the asymmetric casualty totals and Israel’s initiation of Operation Cast Lead, far more attention was given in the FFM report to the allegations of IDF criminality than to that of Hamas. 6. The rather elaborate recommendations in the FFM report were preoccupied with the challenge of overcoming “the culture of impunity” that had immunized similar criminality in the past, and sought mechanisms of accountability that would result in the prosecution of perpetrators. At the same time, the FFM report, in recognition of the general international policy of allowing political actors to establish their own domestic procedures of accountability, recommended that Israel and Hamas be given six months to establish their own independent, credible investigations of allegations and put in place procedures to assess accountability. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 4 Ibid., para. 151. Independent Fact-Finding Committee on Gaza to the League of Arab States, No Safe Place, 30 April 2009, available at http://www.arableagueonline.org/las/picture_gallery/reportfullFINAL.pdf. See inter alia, Human Rights Watch, Rain of Fire. Israel’s Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza, March 2009; “Israel/Gaza: Operation Cast Lead: 22 days of death and destruction”, Amnesty International, July 2009; “Guidelines for Israel’s Investigation into Operation Cast Lead”, B’Tselem, position paper, February 2009; Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Targeted Civilians, 2009. Israel, since its disengagement of 2005, no longer directly occupies Gaza, but continues to have the legal duties of an occupying Power under international humanitarian law due to its total control of the crossings into and out of Gaza, as well as the air space and coastal access. See A/HRC/12/48, para. 1883. Ibid., para. 1335. Ibid., para. 108. GE.10-10260