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United Nations investigators say Israel is actively obstructing their efforts to examine the events surrounding the October 7th Hamas attack in southern Israel that left dozens killed and injured.
In a briefing to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday, Chris Sidoti, one of the three members of the independent UN Commission of Inquiry, accused the Israeli government of failing to cooperate and hampering their investigation.
“So far as the government of Israel is concerned, we have faced not merely a lack of cooperation but active obstruction of our efforts to receive evidence from Israeli witnesses and victims to the events that occurred in southern Israel,” Sidoti stated via video link.
The commission says it has struggled to gather testimony from large numbers of witnesses and victims in Israel due to the lack of cooperation from authorities. Sidoti appealed directly to the Israeli government to allow access, as well as for victims and witnesses to contact the UN inquiry.
“I use this opportunity to appeal again both to the government of Israel to cooperate, and to victims and witnesses to the events in southern Israel to contact the commission of inquiry so that we can hear what they have experienced,” he said.
Sidoti, a former Australian human rights commissioner, revealed the commission proactively collected digital evidence from the aftermath of the attack on October 7th itself. However, he warned some of that online content has since been removed or “disappeared from the internet.”
“If it had not been collected on that day, it would not have been able to be collected,” he cautioned.
Israel has not yet commented on the allegations of obstruction from the UN investigators. The inquiry into the Hamas attack was launched by the UN Human Rights Council last November.