Israeli Drones Killed Gaza Civilians: HRW

JERUSALEM — Human Rights Watch charged Tuesday that Israeli pilots failed to verify targets of drone aircraft at least six times during the Gaza war, firing missiles that killed at least 29 civilians.

Marc Garlasco, a senior military analyst with the group, charged that drone operators had fired before making sure their targets were actual threats.

He called drones the most precise weapons available.

"We should not find so many civilian casualties from these incidents," he said.

A spokesman for the Israeli military said it acted only against military targets during the war in December and January and that Human Rights Watch investigators had been taken in by the "Gazan propaganda system."

Drones are operated by remote control by pilots watching their targets on a video monitor. Their use has risen sharply in recent years because of their ability to hit targets with relatively great accuracy without placing a pilot in danger. American forces have been using drones along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Israel has not acknowledged using pilotless planes for airstrikes but Palestinian witnesses and defense experts have reported seeing Israeli drones attacking targets on the ground.

Israel launched its three-week war against Gaza in late December to halt rocket attacks on its southern communities. Some 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 900 civilians, were killed, according to Gaza health officials and human rights groups. Israel puts the death toll closer to 1,100 and says the vast majority of the dead were militants.

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Thirteen Israelis were also killed.

Israel has acknowledged loosening its rules of engagement in Gaza to minimize military casualties. Rights groups have accused Israel of using disproportionate force and failing to protect civilians.

Human Rights Watch investigated what it said were six drone strikes for its report: three that hit children playing on Gaza rooftops and three others that hit an elementary school serving as a refugee center, a group of students at a bus stop, and a metal shop near a refugee camp.

In each case, the report claims, high-resolution video from the drones should have told operators there were no gunmen in the area.

The group is calling on Israel to investigate and punish drone operators who didn't exercise enough caution and to release videos of drone strikes.

Human Rights Watch said it verified the six attacks by investigating the strike sites and interviewing witnesses soon after the war ended. They found a particular type of shrapnel and a neat dispersion of the missile parts consistent with a drone-fired Israeli Spike missile, Garlasco said. An independent Norwegian defense analyst confirmed those findings, the group said.

The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem claims 87 Gaza civilians were killed in more than 40 drone strikes during the war, but Human Rights Watch investigated only six of those attacks.

Comments

[Naqba]

I think it's wonderful that Israel has the developed technology to fight the enemy without exposing its troops to danger. How odd that many of you consider that cowardice, but strapping bombs onto children - or hiding your fighters inside a civilian population - isn't. What kind of army operates from within civilian territory? An army that has no regard for human life whatsoever.

[alexa07]

All those cameras were there, (well, not the US media) & the world saw what really happened to hundreds & hundreds of Palestinian families, narrated by very articulate Palestinian journalists. The Israeli govt is no longer in control of all the images. The consequences of this are just beginning to appear; this will have far reaching consequences for everyone in the region.

[alexa07]

Using skyborne robots against a large population of mostly unarmed civilian families who are unable to escape. How creepy. How totalitarian. How shameful.

[laminators]

Now I'm worried regarding Israel's foreign minister: http://www.governmentalityblog.com/my_weblog/2009/07/getting-rid-of-avigdor-lieberman.html

[Hdaryl01]

The oppressed have become the oppressors.

[petera63]

Very "smart" remark...

[arle]

Not so clever reply.

[Naqba]

The Muslims always WERE oppressors.

[Johnz52]

Israel is a rogue country that has violated international law with impunity for over 6 decades. They refuse to join the IAEA or cooperate with the U.N. War Crimes Commission. Israel engages in apartheid policies. It is time for Israel is be brought to account for their violations of international law and numerous war crimes.

[CigarGod]

Have a cigar.

[petera63]

Give him two cigars - one up, and one down.

[Hdaryl01]

It's tough to do when Isreal signed the International Criminal Court Charter, but later renounced it........

[arle]

Some breaking news -- Israel just attacked another humanitarian ship headed for Gaza. They've boarded it confiscated humanitarian supplies and kidnapped the human rights advocates on board. The lot of them are being dragged from Palestinian coastal waters to an Israeli port.

http://freegaza.org/en/home/hope-fleet-news/976-israel-attacks-justice-boat-kidnaps-human-rights-workers-confiscates-medicine-toys-and-olive-trees

Among those taken by the Israeli navy are Cynthia McKinney, who sat in the House of Representatives and Mairead Maguire, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

[DeniseA]

According to the HuffPost version, Israel plans to truck the medical supplies into Gaza and let the human rights advocates go as soon as they're checked.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20090630/ml-israel-gaza-blockade/

[alumcreek]

"Rights groups have accused Israel of using disproportionate force and failing to protect civilians."

Please ask the rights group to detail the exact formula for proportionate force and how they reacted to and spoke out on the matter of Hamas bombing Israel. I would be very interested in their views on the matter of several thousand mortars and rockets fired indiscriminately into Israel. How did they take Hamas to task? (I am sorry to display my ignorance on the matter but I can't seem to recall their cries of anguish.)

[amdezurik]

please detail how they have not already done so, try reading their site, or heck just try reading.

[blutigeroo]

Part 2:
The reason why no fatwa has been issued against Hamas and the Muslim word does not condemn Hamas like it does AQ and the Taliban (etc) is because the majority of Muslim clerics and academics understand Arabic and so they know that there were no human shields.
Finally, the reasons you state for not caring about the Palestinians are the very reasons why the Palestinain do not care about Israel. The only thing it that Israel has, for many decades, instigated every war and knowingly incited retaliation; afterwards playing the victim.
Even Ghandi has said that nothing can be said against the the Arabs as they have been wronged too many times.

[blutigeroo]

I recall their cries of anguish, they do not take political sides, they report everything but...

"I would be very interested in their views on the matter of several thousand mortars and rockets fired indiscriminately into Israel."

...It is not the number of weapons that matters to them, it is the rights of people to live. Hamas does not control Israeli access to potable water, food, clothing, social services, roads etc. Hamas has also not killed or displaced as many civilians as Israel has. Did you know that the Palestinian refugee problem is the largest modern refugee crisis, even greater than the problem in Darfur?
Hamas is a rogue political organization that has the support of the people as the people have no one else willing to be tough on Israel and stand up for them. Israel is the 4th biggest military power in the world and always instigates the violence, Arab violence is always been reactionary. It is hard to say something equally against the Arabs in light of this.

[Naqba]

"I would be very interested in their views on the matter of several thousand mortars and rockets fired indiscriminately into Israel."

http://www.ujc.org/blog.aspx?id=95

Here are a few of those voices. But you wouldn't be interested in hearing them, because these voices are Jewish. Unless you like to hear the anguished cries of the Jews in Auschwitz and Buchenwald...voices that those who love victims can identify with.

[alumcreek]

As soon as Palestinians become fastidious about whom they target, I might get around to giving a damn about people placed in harm's way by so called Palestinian freedom fighters who are so cowardly as to hide underground or use human shields.

I have a great deal of respect for the Palestinians I grew up with and know personally but I fail to care about a population that votes for anyone who states clearly they intend to kill or banish my family and friends. If you know that you live solely to end other people's lives because someone says Allah wants you to or your politics state so, you need never ask for any mercy or quarter. If you vote for such people and still still for their bombing someone else for several years, you surely expect to be harmed at some point.

Hamas must either give up its intention to destroy Israel or at the very least it must cease using others as human shields. I find it hard to accept that any cleric has given them the right to use Muslims as shields. I also am amazed that no Muslim cleric has issued a fatwa against using Muslims as human shields. I should think that Muslim clerics as a whole would be ranting about such use of Muslim adherents but I hear only a slight whispered murmur in the background.

[blutigeroo]

Firstly, Hamas only has rogue rockets, not high-tech weaponry shipped over from the biggest and most technologically advanced military power in the world that would enable them to distinguish their targets. If you want to supply them with the weapons that would allow them to be fastidious about whom they target then go for it.
Secondly, the human shields thing was all a lie concocted by the IDF and the MSM. The English translation of that particular speech by the Hamas leader was wrong, he did not say that they used human shields during the Gaza incident, he said that they would defend the children and women of Palestine with their own bodies if need be. He was referring to the lack of weapons and saying that even if the weapons run out, they will use their mortal bodies. The MSM got its translation from MEMRI whom many in both the Arabic speaking world and the English speaking world reject because of thier biased and too often incorrect translations. The research institute is more of a propaganda machine. I hope that you will read my post and do some research or ask someone who knows Arabic to translate the speech for you.

[blutigeroo]

Part 2:
The reason why no fatwa has been issued against Hamas and the Muslim word does not condemn Hamas like it does AQ and the Taliban (etc) is because the majority of Muslim clerics and academics understand Arabic and so they know that there were no human shields.
Finally, the reasons you state for not caring about the Palestinians are the very reasons why the Palestinain do not care about Israel. The only thing it that Israel has, for many decades, instigated every war and knowingly incited retaliation; afterwards playing the victim.
Even Ghandi has said that nothing can be said against the the Arabs as they have been wronged too many times.

[jonjon66]

29 civilians. Muslims, no MSM media will cover that. NONE

[fbr79]

No it won't. It hardly gave any coverage for the couple of hundred thousand Muslims that have died in Darfur and that's more than twice the number of people who have died in the 60 years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

[arle]

Well at least we agree on one thing -- the US MSM doesn't think atrocities against Muslims are with covering.

[LincolnParkChicago]

"The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle)," he continued.

Chabad Rabbi Friedman
"I don't believe in western morality, i.e. don't kill civilians or children, don't destroy holy sites, don't fight during holiday seasons, don't bomb cemeteries, don't shoot until they shoot first because it is immoral," Rabbi Friedman began.

http://ww.huffingtonpost.com/bradley-burston/loving-israel-by-hating-o_b_213315.html

[driven989]

Amazing that some people are still able to justify (and rationalize) the Israeli occupation. The human race seems to be devolving...

[lightningbolt]

Is Human Rights Watch going to investigate Hamas's deliberate killing of Israeli and Palestinian civilians? Are they going to investigate the ruthless dictatorship that Hamas runs in Gaza and the horrible way they treat their own people? They certainly should because Hamas is definitely violating human rights on a daily basis.

[arle]

Doesn't change the fact that Israel is doing it, too. Big difference is that Israel is using American taxpayer money and military hardware to do what they're doing.

[lightningbolt]

Hamas is using Iranian taxpayer money.

[technicaldifficulty]

Last time I looked, Hamas didn't have any drones. A cursory reading of this article would reveal that Human Rights Watch was looking specifically at the use of drones. If Hamas had been using drones, then yes, they would be looking at whether Hamas was using these drones to indiscriminately kill Israelis. They have consistently investigated and condemned both sides. The evidence for this is here: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/11/20/letter-hamas-stop-rocket-attacks
and here:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/06/24/gaza-allow-shalit-contact-family-international-red-cross

Human Rights Watch is always accused of siding with the Palestinians but never recognized when they criticize Palestine...just to keep up the appearance that HRW is anti-Israeli

[lungfish]

Israel has never conceded to a UN Resolution against it. Ever. Israel is not accountable to anyone for its treatment of any person. It doesn't surprise me that Hamas and most Palestinians view the occupation as a war upon Palestinian women and children. Israel kills enough of them to make that a valid point, why should Hamas be any more discriminating?
Frankly its a sickening situation and the occupying nation has the responsiblity for the safety of occupied people as well as itself.

[CigarGod]

Why don't you go to their site and see what they say about terrorism...of any kind?

But, why would you first not address the point of the article...Israel's behavior?

[BannedNBoston]

Just like our 80 drones in iraq Pakistan & Afghanistan
they are magic and hit terrorists only never inocent men women and children

[technicaldifficulty]

It appears that my previous comment got lost so I'll try again. This article has left out an important detail. It goes to great lengths to provide numbers for casualties on the Palestinian side. The number of civilian vs. militants as reported by human rights groups and the Israelis. However, when it comes to the Israeli casualties only a single paragraph is provided "Thirteen Israelis were also killed." This is not consistent with the numbers reported for the Palestinian side. There is no break down between civilians and militants. In fact, 3 of the Israeli casualties were civilian and the rest were soldiers, the majority of which were killed by friendly fire. I hope the staff at Huffington Post will find this comment suitable enough to post as the error/omission is important.

[Hank007]

Why do they keep calling this a 'war'? It was blatantly declared as another round of the 'Shoah', or holocaust as the knesset calls it, which Israel is perpetrating against Palestinan Christians and Muslims. The whole point was to kill civilians, since the Gaza refugee camp has no military, just people fighting for survival against genocide.

[fbr79]

Because it is a war, it just happens that one side still doesn't have it's hands on as many weapons and is not as organized, YET. Hamas would not hesitate to use whatever weaponry it get's it hands on straight into the civilian population in the other side. I'm sure Iran and Syria will continue arming Hamas and maybe soon you'll have the bloodbath you lust for. Gaza is not a "refugee" camp and

Please don't put the Palestinian Christians and Muslims in the same boat, I'm sure the Christians are more worried about the beatings, improsionment and tortures they sufer in the hands of Hamas and the PA way more than they are worried about Israelis. The ratio of Christians to Muslims amongst the Palestinian population since 1947 went from 20% to 2%.

[arle]

"Hamas would not hesitate to use whatever weaponry it get's it hands on straight into the civilian population in the other side." That assumption seems to be predicated solely on the notion that Palestinians are willing to fight just as dirty as Israelis are.

[AndWeCallOurSelvesCivil]

Actually, Christian groups in Gaza are more scared of Israeli forces than Pelestinian Forces.

[technicaldifficulty]

Christians and Muslims live in relative peace. No, the real reason the Christian population has decreased is because life is very hard as an Arab in this part of the world. In 1948, just as many Christians were thrown off their land, my spouse's family included, and scattered all over the world. The difference is that many more Christians had the money to start over elsewhere, like the U.S. and Canada. Under the conditions suffered by the people of Gaza, most people, if given the chance to improve the lives of their children, would try and do so. The remaining Christians are much more worried about the Israelis as the Israelis are the ones taking their land, arresting them, and firing indiscriminately at them.

And Gaza IS a refugee camp...has been since 1948. The people living there were driven from their homes and not allowed to return. What else would you call it?

[CigarGod]

There are actually 8 large refugee camps in Gaza...containing 586,540 refugee's.
http://www.mideastweb.org/mrefugees.htm

Given the total population of Gaza, 1.4 million, the refugee population is substantial.

Finally, given the nature of Palestines imprisonment, I think it is logical to call the whole state a camp.