A UN probe has affirmed that there is evidence Israel committed crimes against humanity when its forces responded to protests in Gaza in 2018, as snipers targeted people clearly identifiable as children, health workers, journalists and people with disabilities.

“Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Some of those violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity,” Santiago Canton, the chair of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the protests in the occupied Palestinian territory, said in a statement.

The inquiry, set up by the UN Human Rights Council, investigated possible violations from the start of the protests on March 30, 2018, through December 31.

“More than 6,000 unarmed demonstrators were shot by military snipers, week after week at the protest sites,” it said.

“The Commission found reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers shot at journalists, health workers, children and persons with disabilities, knowing they were clearly recognizable as such,” it said.

The investigators specified that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli troops killed and injured Palestinians “who were neither directly participating in hostilities, nor posing an imminent threat.”

The UN team also dismissed claims by Israel that the protests were aimed to conceal acts of terrorism that have included shootings, grenade and bomb attacks, Molotov cocktails and breaches of the border fence.

“The demonstrations were civilian in nature, with clearly stated political aims,” the statement said. “Despite some acts of significant violence, the Commission found that the demonstrations did not constitute combat or military campaigns.”