In its annual report published Thursday, New York-based Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of war crimes and says many governments were expressing "selective outrage" over atrocities committed in the conflict in Gaza.
The report analyses the human rights situation in nearly 100 countries over the past 12 months, describing 2023 as a "formidable year" for human rights suppression and wartime atrocities.
Report describes 'selective outrage'
Israel has said Hamas-led militants tortured and killed 1,200 people in their cross-border attack on October 7, including dozens of women and children.
"The October 7 attacks by Hamas-led fighters on Israel were a terrifying assault on civilians… Many countries quickly and justifiably condemned these horrific acts," the HRW report says. "Israel's government responded by cutting water and electricity to Gaza's 2.3 million civilians and blocking the entry of all but a trickle of fuel, food, and humanitarian aid – a form of collective punishment that is a war crime. The Israeli military ordered more than a million people in Gaza to evacuate their homes and bombarded densely populated areas with heavy weapons, killing thousands of civilians."
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said more than 23,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7 — an estimated 70% of them women and children.
Human Rights Watch says the response from Israel's Western allies amounted to "selective outrage." "Many of the governments that condemned Hamas' war crimes have been reserved in responding to those by the Israeli government," says the report.
Lama Fakih, the Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report, told VOA that the entire system of human rights is being undermined.
"What we are calling for is a principled commitment to upholding human rights, no matter who the perpetrator is and no matter who the victim is," Fakih said.
The report warns that governments, such as Russia and China, are seeking to "weaponize this weakened legitimacy to reshape the rules-based order to strip it of human rights values and undermine the system that could hold them to account for their countless abuses."
Israel seeks 'no unintended consequences'
Israel has strongly rejected suggestions that it has committed war crimes in Gaza.
While meeting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Israel is doing its "…utmost, under extremely complicated circumstances on the ground, to make sure that there will be no unintended consequences and no civilian casualties."
"We are alerting, we are calling, we are showing, we are sending leaflets, we are using all the means that international law enables us to move out people, so that we can unravel this huge city of terror underneath, in people's homes, living rooms, bedrooms, mosques, and shops and schools," Herzog told reporters.
Toll 'too high,' says Blinken
In recent weeks, Washington has increasingly urged Israel to make greater efforts to protect Palestinian civilians.
"We know that facing an enemy that embeds itself among civilians, who hides in and fires from schools, from hospitals makes this incredibly challenging. But the daily toll on civilians in Gaza, particularly on children, is far too high," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv.
In the days following its attack on southern Israel, Hamas denied it was targeting civilians.
"We abide to Islamic ethics and morals and we were never thinking to attack civilians. But I think it is open confrontation now… our fight is with the soldiers and settlers and against the occupation," Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad told Britain's Channel 4 News on October 7.
However, Israel has shown extensive evidence that Hamas militants deliberately tortured, raped and killed civilians, including women and children, in the October attack. More than 100 Israeli hostages are still being held by Hamas in Gaza.
Report notes 'tremendous human suffering'
The report says 2023 was marked by "tremendous human suffering" in many parts of the world.
Russia's war on Ukraine continued to take a devastating toll. "Throughout the year, Russian forces committed war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine. They carried out indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks that killed and severely injured civilians and destroyed vital infrastructure and objects of cultural and historical significance," says the report.
The report also highlights the suffering caused by conflict in Sudan, where an internal power struggle "unleashed fighting that resulted in massive abuses against civilians, notably in the Darfur region."
The report says gross human rights abuses continue unabated in Myanmar, where the military junta continues its deadly campaign against ethnic minority groups.
In the Sahel region, Human Rights Watch says militant groups and counterterrorist forces regularly commit atrocities.
Additionally, the report highlights the persecution of women under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
HRW also accuses several countries, including India, Rwanda and China, of targeting their nationals living abroad — often political dissidents — or their families back home.
HRW praises defenders of rights
Human Rights Watch praises institutions that have stood up for human rights, such as the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over accusations that Moscow is forcibly transferring Ukrainian children to its territory.
It also highlights a September ruling by Brazil's Supreme Court upholding Indigenous peoples' rights to their traditional lands.
"These victories highlight the tremendous power of independent, rights-respecting and inclusive institutions and of civil society to challenge those who wield political power to serve the public interest and chart a rights-respecting path forward," says the report.
