Impunity for war crimes in Gaza a recipe for further civilian suffering
2 July 2009, 01:53PM
Israeli forces killed hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians and destroyed thousands of homes in Gaza in attacks which breached the laws of war, Amnesty International concluded in a new 117-page report published today - the first comprehensive report to be published on the 22-day conflict earlier this year.
Download the Report, Operation 'Cast Lead': 22 days of death and destruction (pdf 1.2Mb), now.
“Israel’s failure to properly investigate its forces’ conduct in Gaza, including war crimes, and its continuing refusal to cooperate with the UN international independent fact-finding mission headed by Richard Goldstone, is evidence of its intention to avoid public scrutiny and accountability,” said Donatella Rovera, who headed a field research mission to Gaza and southern Israel during and after the conflict.
“The international community, led by the UN Security Council, must use all its leverage to ensure that Israel cooperates fully with the Goldstone inquiry, which now offers the best means to establish the truth.”
Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups fired hundreds of rockets into southern Israel, killing three Israeli civilians, injuring scores and driving thousands from their homes. “Such unlawful attacks constitute war crimes and are unacceptable,” added Rovera.
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.
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 1,400 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces.
Most 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.
Amnesty International found that the victims of the attacks it investigated were not caught in the crossfire during battles between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces, nor were they shielding militants or other military objects. Many were killed when their homes were bombed while they slept. Other 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.
“The deaths of so many children and other civilians cannot be dismissed simply as ‘collateral damage’, as argued by Israel,” said Donatella 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.”
More than 3,000 homes were destroyed and some 20,000 damaged in Israeli attacks which reduced entire neighbourhoods of Gaza to rubble and left an already dire economic situation in ruins. Much of the destruction was wanton and could not be justified on grounds of “military necessity”.
The Israeli army has not responded to Amnesty International’s 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.
"For its part, Hamas has continued to justify the rocket attacks launched daily by its fighters and by other Palestinian armed groups into towns and villages in southern Israel during the 22-day conflict. 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,” added Rovera.
In addition to locally made Qassam rockets, Palestinian militants often fired longer-range Grad-type rockets smuggled into Gaza via the tunnels on 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 Donatella Rovera.
Under international law, states have a responsibility to exercise universal jurisdiction and start criminal investigations in national courts, wherever there is sufficient evidence of war crimes or other crimes under international law, to arrest and bring to justice alleged perpetrators.
“Those responsible for war crimes and other serious violations must not be allowed to escape accountability and justice.”
Among other recommendations, the report calls on states to suspend all transfers of military equipment, assistance and munitions to Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups until there is no longer a substantial risk that such equipment will be used to commit serious violations of international law.
It calls on Israel to commit not to carry out direct, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks on civilians; or use artillery, mortars and white phosphorus weapons in densely populated areas; and to end its blockade on the Gaza Strip, which is collectively punishing the entire population.
It urges Hamas to renounce its policy of unlawful rocket attacks against civilian population centres in Israel and to prevent other armed groups from carrying out such attacks.
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Comments are submitted by members of the public and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Amnesty International Australia. If you find a comment objectionable please contact the web editor.
Wasalu
15 July 2009, 12:22PM
Firstly Steve, I highly doubt that a Jewish news source would be impartial when commenting on a controversial issue in which accusations of war crimes are made against the government of the Jewish homeland. I would say the same of an Palestinian or Arabic news piece commenting on said issues.
Secondly, Regarding your comments on the speech the Colonel Kemp. He is a Btitish officer speaking on behalf of his command, which ultimately is speaking on behalf of the British government. Think logically, of course he is going to defend Israel, it is a mjor trading partner of Britian, is Palestine? NO. Britain is responsible for the creation of Israel!.
And im not sure that you can compare the conflict to wether You or I is acting within the law. Speaking of which, Palestinans generally follow Sharia law, which unfortunately is altered by Islamic political fundamentalism. Many of the Hamas terrorists believe that they are acting within the law!
Lúcia Nunes
15 July 2009, 10:12AM
Steve
I’m a brazilian journalist, let me remember you that the decisive vote to create the Israeli State was from a brazilian Oswaldo Aranha. For sure he will do not agree with homicides acts from Israeli army: belicist and aparaently nazi-sionist. Hystory tells that colaboracionists jews strenght his forces to create the Hitler’s dream: a jew nation (Eichman in his trial in Jerusalém told this - Hanah Arendt). The high comand of israeli army sends soldiers to arrest orthodox jews because they do not agree with the demolition of ancients cemiteries to create fashion shoppingcenters. The nazi-sionist State have the same aprouch to Gaza. Israel discover that in Gaza borders theres is water. I saw a documentary in wich and new-yorker descendent of a jew family go to the Gaza border to protest against the demolition of the water reservatory pertaining to palestine families. He was arrested and put in chains by the israeli police. It is a escandall. Is this a democractic treatement?
Steve
14 July 2009, 08:55PM
Wasulu
go to <<jiw.blogspot.com/search?q=Col.+Richard+Kemp>> (put the http… etc in front) to read what Former commander of British forces in Afghanistan Col. Richard Kemp told a conference in Jerusalem on June 18, 2009.
He said that in Gaza the Israel Defence Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.
AND HE ISN’T EVEN JEWISH…!!
Steve
14 July 2009, 08:49PM
Dear Wasulu
Can YOU prove you are acting within the law? ...or perhaps you might suggest that you should be treated as innocent until proven guilty(?)
And in the meantime, if your neighbour is openly murdering people in full view of all to see, yet I hound you repeatedly to “prove that you are innocent”, how would you feel?
...and by the way, what’s wrong with using a “Jewish” web site as a source? Do you consider Jews less trustworthy because they’re Jews? Why is the opinion of a Jew in Canada less valid than that of a misguided human-rights activist in Australia?
Wasalu
13 July 2009, 01:57PM
Steve, i don’t know if you noticed, but you took your source from a jewish news site. OF COURSE it is going to FAVOUR the israeli’s. What you fail to see is that Hamas is not a nation that has signed conventions and treaties and agreements or the rules of warfare, not to say it shouldnt be held accountable, but israel IS a UN MEMBER NATION. It HAS signed these treaties and agreements. Not to mention the fact that Israel possesses some of the most advanced weapons systems in the world, yet their weapons frequently “mistake” innocent civilians for terrorists. Face the facts, if Israel is innocent or is acting within the law, IT CAN PROVE IT?
Steve
13 July 2009, 12:42PM
The Canadian Jewish News, in an Editorial entitled “Travesty international” on Thursday, 09 July 2009 (see www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17288&Itemid=86)says:
QUOTE
The 117-page document is ...almost in its entirety, targets Israel. Of the six chapters and 117 pages in the report, one chapter - comprising 11 pages - discusses the Palestinians” role in the conflagration…
...“We find it both questionable and objectionable that a well-respected and ostensibly objective international organization such as Amnesty could produce a report on Operation Cast Lead without properly recognizing the unbearable reality of nine years of incessant and indiscriminate rocket fire on the citizens of Israel. The slant of their report indicates that the organization succumbed to the manipulations of the Hamas terror organization,” the IDF said….
...Amnesty so unfairly, so determinedly targets Israel that it makes of their report an international travesty.
UNQUOTE
Steve
9 July 2009, 10:08PM
For the full report on UK media bias, go to
www.justjournalism.com/special-reports/download/Israel_and_Sri_Lanka_-_a_media_analysis_of_war_crimes_allegations.pdf
Steve
9 July 2009, 10:06PM
In both Gaza and Sri Lanka allegations of war crimes were made on account of reportedly indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas. UN agencies and NGOs accused Israel and Sri Lanka of disregarding the safety of the civilian populations associated with their opponents in favour of pursuing their military objectives.
Media research indicates that the UK broadsheets took a markedly different approach to issue in relation to Israel and Sri Lanka.
The first three months of hostilities this year between Israel and Hamas saw 75 articles addressing the possibility of Israeli war crimes in Gaza. In contrast, during the first three months of the final phase of military operations in Tamil-held territory, only one article addressing the possibility of war crimes in Sri Lanka had been published.
Double standards…and Amnesty can be tarred with the same brush ...
Steve
9 July 2009, 07:11PM
Marilyn - so over 6,000 rocket attacks indiscriminantly fired into Israeli civilian towns over the eight years BEFORE Israel attacked Hamas in Gaza is called “fighting back” is it?
...Oh, and why don’t you get some civility and courtesy into your language…would you like me to tell you to “belt up”??
Marilyn
9 July 2009, 06:41PM
The Palestinians were in their own land, the jews were the interlopers but what is really disgusting is the Israeli spin machine that overlooks the crimes committed by the west against jewish refugees while punishing the Palestinians for our crimes.
Steve, why don’t you just belt up or address the issue in the report.
Hamas had held the truce but Israel were starving them anyway and for amnesty or HRW to dare to claim fighting back is a war crime is deluded.
Steve
9 July 2009, 05:37PM
Marilyn, if you are focussed (only) on the Gaza conflict then note that Former commander of British forces in Afghanistan Col. Richard Kemp told a conference in Jerusalem on June 18, 2009 that the Israel Defence Forces did more in the recent Gaza conflict to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.
go to jiw.blogspot.com/2009/07/british-colonel-declares-idf-did-more.html for more…
Sandy
9 July 2009, 05:31PM
If you want to see “whining” take a look at the “Marilyn” posts here ...
She(?) says: “A few arabs might well have killed a few Jews in Palestine…” yeah “Marilyn” you don’t give a xxxx about a “few Jews” do you? ...what a “caring social-justice crusader” you are….
Marilyn
9 July 2009, 04:33PM
Steve, stop the hasbara whining on behalf of Israel. A few arabs might well have killed a few jews in Palestine but usually because a few jews had murdered many Palestinians.
And those squatters in the WEst Bank live illegally in Palestine and always have. They should go home and they have not been born there.
For god’s sake this report is about the murder of 1400 people in January, why do the Israeli spinmeisters have to hark back to days before Israel even existed to have a whine about naughty arabs.
It is their country and they were right to deny the partition, as Australia and every other country on earth would deny partition of their land for the sake of another group.
Israel was born of terrorism and must pay the price for that terrorism but to claim that means I want jews dead is the height of madness.
The 350,000 recent US migrants can go home, it is perfectly safe.
The 300,000 Russians who lied about being Jewish can go home.
Steve
9 July 2009, 04:14PM
Marilyn
So you suggest that Israel, a sovereign nation should be destroyed and 5-6 million Jews “go home safely to places like America”? Most of them were born in Israel, their ancestors came from all over the world, including Europe, Russia and all the Arab lands where they were repressed and expelled.
Would you also suggest that the people who the UN classes as Palestinian Refugees, whose ancestors came to the region from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon Jordan, Iraq etc (many of them as late as 1946) should also “go home”?
Heaven help us all if that’s what you call “human-rights”.
Steve
9 July 2009, 04:04PM
Marilyn
Arabs have been murdering Jews since the first Arab riots in Jaffa in 1921, even pursuing them around the world on airline flights, to South America and the Munich Olympics, not to mention suicide bombings, drive-by shootings, stabbings and rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli civilians that killed over 1,200 Israelis and injured 7,000 since 2000.
So who’s murdering his neighbours????
If you’re going to be rude and say stuff like “get a grip you ignorant people” ...you’d better hold up a mirror and take a long hard look.
Marilyn
9 July 2009, 12:32PM
Well Sandy most of them could go home safely to places like America or alternatively they could stop murdering the neighbours and live with them.
Now get a grip you ignorant people.
Sandy
9 July 2009, 11:25AM
Marilyn says: “Israel has been a terrorist state since 1948 ...” so what do you suggest, Marilyn? Dismantle the “terrorist state”? ...and what would you do with those pesky 5-6 million Jews there? have you got a “solution”?
Steve
9 July 2009, 11:17AM
Amen JOEK, amen ...you are absolutely right. If only people treated eachother as they expect to be treated themselves.
What is Hamas thinking when it lobs rockets (thousands of them) indiscriminantly into Israeli towns?
Steve
9 July 2009, 11:13AM
Sorry ...there’s no link embedded in the posting.
Just Google “Jewish Issues Watchdog” to see the report about Col. Richard Kemp.
JOEK
9 July 2009, 11:10AM
The HATRED runs very deep. If only people could treet others as they would expectothers to treat themselves. No good can come of killing children; even accidently
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