Middle East News
Amnesty: Israel, Hamas committed war crimes during Gaza war
Jul 2, 2009, 5:40 GMT
Jerusalem - Israel and Palestinian militants committed war crimes during the Gaza war of last winter, Amnesty International said in its first comprehensive report on the 22-day conflict, published Thursday.
The London-based human rights groups called for an international arms embargo on both Israel and the radical Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza.
Israeli forces killed hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians and destroyed thousands of homes in Gaza in attacks which breached the laws of war, it said in the 117-page report.
Donatella Rovera, who headed a field research mission to Gaza and southern Israel during and after the conflict for Amnesty, slammed Israel for trying to avoid accountability, by failing to properly investigate itself the conduct of its own forces, and by refusing to cooperate with the UN fact-finding mission headed by respected South African prosecutor Richard Goldstone.
She urged the international community to 'use all its leverage' to pressure Israel into cooperating with the Goldstone inquiry.
The Amnesty report also noted that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups fired hundreds of rockets into southern Israel, killing - during the war itself - three Israeli civilians, injuring scores and driving thousands from their homes.
'Such unlawful attacks constitute war crimes and are unacceptable,' said Rovera in a press release.
The report, based on evidence gathered by Amnesty International delegates, including a military expert, during field research in January and February, documents Israel's use of battlefield weapons against a civilian population trapped in Gaza, with no means of escape.
It said the scale and intensity of the attacks on Gaza were unprecedented. Some 300 children and hundreds of other unarmed civilians who took no part in the conflict were among the some 1,400 Palestinians killed during the war.
Most, it said, were killed with high-precision weapons, relying on surveillance drones which have exceptionally good optics, allowing those observing to see their targets in detail. Others were killed with imprecise weapons, including artillery shells carrying white phosphorus - not previously used in Gaza - which should never be used in densely populated areas.
Many, it added, were killed when their homes were bombed while they slept. 'Others were sitting in their yard or hanging the laundry on the roof. Children were struck while playing in their bedrooms or on the roof, or near their homes. Paramedics and ambulances were repeatedly attacked while attempting to rescue the wounded or recover the dead,' it said.
'The deaths of so many children and other civilians cannot be dismissed simply as 'collateral damage', as argued by Israel,' said Rovera. 'Many questions remain to be answered about these attacks and about the fact that the strikes continued unabated despite the rising civilian death toll.'
According to Amnesty, more than 3,000 homes were destroyed and some 20,000 damaged in Israeli attacks which reduced several entire neighbourhoods of Gaza to rubble. It charged that most of the damage was 'wanton.'
The rights group said the Israeli army had not responded to its repeated requests over the past five months for information on specific cases detailed in the report and for meetings to discuss the organization's findings.
About the hundreds of Palestinian rockets launched, Rovera said that 'though less lethal, these attacks, using unguided rockets which cannot be directed at specific targets, violated international humanitarian law and cannot be justified under any circumstance.'
In addition to locally made Qassam rockets, Palestinian militants fired longer-range Grad-type rockets smuggled into Gaza via the tunnels under the Egyptian border, which reached deeper into Israel and placed many more Israeli civilians at risk.
'Five months on, neither side has shown any inclination to change its practices and abide by international humanitarian law, raising the prospect that civilians will again bear the brunt if fighting resumes,' said Rovera.
The report urged those responsible be held accountable for the war crimes committed.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
There should be an immediate action initiated to bring Israeli politicians OLMERT and BARAK before an international War Crimes court to face charges.
The wanton killing of hundreds of women and children must not be allowed to remain unnoticed or unpunished.
This was an atrocity.
It's sad that a once respected organisation like Amnesty should bend to Zionists.The obvious wickedness of Israel is seen as the same as some attempts at defence with home made rockets.Most rockets fired into, not Israel, but stolen land.Who attacked who? Who drove millions of people from their homes and created the most densely populated ghetto on the planet? Yet Amnesty can only half condemn them. Zionists own the Democrats,Republicans,Tories, New Labour,Liberals,television, B.B.C. and the newspapers. Sadly they now have taken over Amnesty.
What kind of coward nation would use Palestinian children for shield, the IDF alias 'Irgun' while they were advancing in Gaza they had tanks , apache helicopter, F-16, drones to protect them. I guess they felt it was not enough to protect themself so they had to use palestinian children for shield. The IDF calls themself the most humane army in the world, it shows. They are nothing but a bunch of war criminals, breaking every international law and my president Obama doesn't have the guts to stand up to this rogue nation
I think Isael were very soft on the palestinians...
most other countries would carpet bomb the entire area.
If I was in charge of the I.D.F. I would annex the entire area.
No country would put up with terrorists firing rockets at their civilians for over 8 years.
I hope Hamas learn a lesson from all this.
It's a pity that those who have no legal claim to the land are forever using it as an excuse for genocidally attacking Israel. The Philistines deliberately place children where they will be killed and then groups like Amnesty- who never seem to notice the 2.5 million dead in southern Sudan, they only notice Darfur, in western Sudan- will hop up and down in self-righteous finger pointing. Surely the inferno has a place for such hypocrites as these.
'The London-based human rights groups called for an international arms embargo on both Israel and the radical Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza.'
When will they realise that it is precisely because the rest of the world either CAN'T, or WON'T stop the arms supply to the Hamas Terrorists, that Israel was forced to take action.
The rest of the world only got upset AFTER Israel said 'Enough is Enough'
Why can't the rest of the world take some responsibility.
A government lets some community thugs buy dangerous dogs, and the dogs start biting people, One man's family is scared about the future of the neighbourhood, as some in his family have already been injured, but the government does nothing. He tries to talk to the thugs, but they don't give a shyte, they infact want more dogs. So eventually the man starts shooting the dogs.
Who do you blame?
A: The thugs (Hamas)
B: The dogs (The weapons)
C; The man (Israel)
D; The government (The global community)
Or would you like to phone a friend?
page: 1
JonathanJul 2nd, 2009 - 06:42:45
Every time I read another article on how the war between Israel and Gaza I have to shake my head in wonder. Hammas was sending rockets into Israel on a daily basis. Some hit houses some hit nothing. But never the less rockets were being fireds into Israel for months and months. Israel tried to get the rockets stopped but they still came from Gaza. Israel warned Hammas over and over. Israel appealed to every international court and the UN. Still the rockets came. So a war came. Now it seems Israel should have done a 'gentle' war. WHAT nation when at war does not use the best they have in battle. The USA is in Iraq and I suppose they should use rifles and snipers because that is what they are fighting...right..War is Hell..If Hammas didn't want the results they should have stopped the rocket firing period. Hammas started the war..Hammas was warned for months..Hammas has no reguard for human life ..so Hey they got just what they deserved.
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