Amnesty Accuses Israel, Hamas Of War Crimes During Gaza Op (VIDEO)

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Amnesty International accused Israel and Palestinian militants of war crimes Thursday in the most comprehensive report on the recent Gaza war. Both sides rejected the findings.

Israel used excessive force in violation of international laws of war, killing hundreds of Palestinian civilians and destroying thousands of Gaza homes, the human rights group claimed. And Palestinian militants committed war crimes each time they fired a rocket at Israeli civilians, it said.

Israel and Hamas both denounced the report as unbalanced. Israel charged that Amnesty "succumbed to the manipulations of the Hamas terror organization." Hamas accused the rights group of downplaying the scale of the destruction Israel left behind.

More than 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 900 civilians, were killed during the three-week offensive, according to Gaza health officials and human rights groups. Israel, which launched the war in late December to halt years of rocket and mortar attacks on its southern communities, put the death toll closer to 1,100.

Thirteen Israelis also were killed, including three civilians who died from rocket fire.

Amnesty's 117-page report said "disturbing questions" remained about why high-precision Israeli weapons like tank shells and air-delivered bombs and missiles "killed so many children and other civilians." And it called on Israel to stop using artillery, white phosphorus and other imprecise weapons in densely populated areas.

It also accused Israeli forces of using Palestinians as "human shields" and frequently blocking civilians from receiving medical care and humanitarian aid.

Amnesty counts some 300 Palestinian children and hundreds of other unarmed civilians among the Gaza dead. Thousands of buildings were also destroyed in what the rights group called sometimes "wanton and deliberate" Israeli assaults.

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The Israeli military said the report did not properly recognize "the unbearable reality of nine years of incessant and indiscriminate rocket fire on the citizens of Israel." It also ignored the military's efforts to minimize civilian casualties in a battlefield where Hamas used residential areas, medical facilities, schools and mosques as cover to stage attacks, the military said in a statement.

"It presents a distorted view of the laws of war that does not comply with the rules implemented by democratic states battling terror," the statement said.

Amnesty said Israel did not respond to investigators' repeated requests for information on specific cases detailed in the report and for meetings to discuss the organization's findings.

The group's findings were based on physical evidence and testimony that a team of four researchers, including a military expert, gathered from dozens of attack sites in Gaza and southern Israel during and after the war, said Donatella Rovera, who headed the Amnesty field research mission.

It broke little new ground, concentrating on issues, cases and problems that have been dealt with before.

Among the Gaza cases cited were the well-documented shelling of a house where a family took refuge on soldiers' orders before 21 people were killed; an Israeli artillery attack near a U.N. school that killed dozens; and the shelling of a house that killed three daughters of a Gaza doctor who has worked in Israel for years and is a champion of coexistence.

The report also denounced Hamas for firing rockets into Israel.

"Such unlawful attacks constitute war crimes and are unacceptable," Rovera said.

Hamas called a news conference Thursday to criticize the report.

"The report equated the victim and the executioner and denied our people's right to resist the occupation," said spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. "The report ignores the scale of destruction and serious crimes committed by the occupation in Gaza ... and provides a misleading description in order to reduce the magnitude of the Israeli crimes."

Comments

[Aussieposter]

The Right to resist part 1
Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977.

Article 1 -- General principles and scope of application
1. The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for this Protocol in all circumstances.

2. In cases not covered by this Protocol or by other international agreements, civilians and combatants remain under the protection and authority of the principles of international law derived from established custom, from the principles of humanity and from the dictates of public conscience.

3. This Protocol, which supplements the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 for the protection of war victims, shall apply in the situations referred to in Article 2 common to those Conventions.

4. The situations referred to in the preceding paragraph include armed conflicts in which peoples are fighting against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist régimes in the exercise of their right of self-determination, as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

[arvay]

Palestinians have the absolute right to resist by any means, the only question is effectiveness of tactics. History shows that hitting civilians increases determination, so it's not generally a good idea to aim at them. Better for them to see their soldiers cut down in front of them, their infrastructure riddled and crucial installations and industries hit.

There are exceptions. All settlers who occupy or are setting up new "facts on the ground" are legitimate targets. They are engaged in ethnic cleansing and therefore are not really "civilians­."

Basically, the Palestinians need more accurate weapons. I think they would use them much more effectively than the desperate home-made rockets they employ. .

Israel is a relatively small, target-rich space with many military targets, a nuclear facility, emplaced nuclear missiles and strategic industries, including those from "investing" companies -- that are legitimate targets. Hitting some of these -- a soda factory that makes export revenue, an orange farm or an international company's research facility -- will likely kill some civilians and that can't be helped.

Tactics aide, there is no moral equivalency between aggressive Zionism and its victims.

[medic628]

They both did it. One of the oldest tactics in warfare.

[jwcmass]

They (by which I assume you mean the IDF and Hamas) may be guilty of war crimes.

But one must consider that the IDF has considerably (by a long shot) more firepowerthan Hamas.

Just look at the casualty figures and ratios. (1000 Palestinians for every Israeli killed. And many of those Israelis were killed by friendly fire, putting the ratio even higher)

Teh numbers speak for themselves, especially when yo consider that 900 of the casualties were civilians.

Does this mean Hamas (and remember Israel helped create Hamas in the first place) is guiltless? Of course not!

But the most of the Western media makes them out to be a powerful terrorist organisation pitted against poor, heroic Israel. This "storyline" is so far from true that it needs correction. Both in Israel AND in the US.

[lungfish]

one should also consider that IDF is conducting their fight on the Palestininian territory. The Hamas people are fighting street to street and the IDF is blowing them up whenever they can. In the end its the IDF that is responsible for the wellbeing of every noncombatant.
At the same time, Hamas has the support of a lot of civilians and they will gather around the fighters to protect them - there is no coersion, they are united... so what to do? There is nothing "Just" about the Israel process of decimating the remnants of Palestine.
Israel began as an enclave in Palestine and through assassination, intimidation, terrorism and ethnic violence they have secured and subjegated all of Palestine. The commentary by Ben Gurian and Golda Meir are particularly illuminating with respect to how Israel has historically treated the Arabs. Zionists are a particularly virulent fundamentalist movement at at the heart of the mistreatment of Arabs...

[CigarGod]

....Plus over 300 children..­.plus all the medical workers/am­bulances..­.plus all the hospitals and schools they justify hitting.

Don't forget; these people are malnourished due to the constant embargoes created by the occuppying government. The UN reports state that over the 61 year year history, the Palestinian malnutrition has resulted in diminished body and brain size, more health problems and shorter life expectancy.

Don't forget, the people are walled in and fenced in. Armed guard towers ring Gaza on 3 sides. The sea is patrolled by the navy. The sky is controlled by the air force.

Is it realistic for the people to accept this fate? Is it realistic for them to fight for a better life for their children? Do they have any less responsibility to their children..­.than you would to yours? If this was your land for generations and centuries, would you not be motivated by a certain amount of patriotism?

Is it really realistic to compare the pitifully ineffective resistence these people can put up...using small arms, rocks and home made unguided Qassam rockets with payloads of 1 to 20 pounds of ex plo sive largely scavenged from unex plod ed IDF ordance?..­..with F-16's, tanks, artillery, etc?

[Whinger]

All things considered a very selective and blinkered account, certainly not the full picture!

[Squaker]

I agree
Its amazing how in the report "each time they fired a rocket....­" is considered a war crime for the Palestinians
Yet the 100,000 of rockets that came from israel are not considered the same way at all, only the use of human shields and use of chemical weapons is a crime for Israel

[JerryLevy]

Amnesty International did not issue one statement about the daily attacks on Israel with rockets from Hamas. After thousands of rockets over a two year period and hundreds of warnings from Israel Amnesty International had no comment. Amnesty International watched five years of suicide terrorism from the Palestinians (trained by Iranian radicals) and made not one statement. AI has become a political organization not a human rights organization and it is the reason their contributions fall year after year.

[CigarGod]

More mis-information.

Reporters and international observers have not been allowed in by IDF....so how are they to report?
After the invasion last winter, then they could go in and interview and do a report.

btw, since 2001, only 11 have been k. ill. ed by the home made, unguided rockets.

[arle]

To wit, also compare that to the 713 Gazans who were killed in 2008 /before/ Operation Cast Lead. Over seven hundred people, in barely a year, compared to less than a dozen in a few years shy of a decade.

And that was /before/ Operation Cast Lead.

[SiberianRat]

Ridiculous.

[jwcmass]

I would like someone to explain to me how a suicide bombing is ANY different (other than the delivery method) from the dropping of bombs on a city? (by any plane).

Both kill innocent victims, and use rationalizaions to justify it.

Anyone?

Certainly Israel has usede this tactic. And,m like the US, justified killing of innocents with the sanitary term of "collateral damage".

Sorry, but to me, that is NO DIFFERENT than a suicide bomb, morally speaking.

I await any justifications.

And I'll cut you right off with the one of how the INTENT is not to kill innocents. Tell it to the families of the dead.

The end does not justify the means.

[MarcusT]

Suicide bombers in Israel are an excellent argument for lifting the arms embargo on Palestinians.

[blutigeroo]

To sum up, the difference between the two is not about the damage they do, it is how to stop them from happening without brushing anything under the carpet.

[MarcusT]

Israel is a tragedy on so many levels. Although created by well deserved Western guilt it was never going to be seen as anything other than another imperialist move. And they have been leveraging that to become what is now a completely indefensible moral scourge, to the ironic point where even the entity that created Israel condemns them. There are many Israelis (though tragically not a majority) who have grown completely disheartened and embarrassed with their government. The Israeli government has a PR machine and lobbyist organization of unparalleled competence, but even this is losing effect. If there exists a political solution is lies within the Israeli government. And I don't believe Obama called for a realistic settlement freeze without clearing it with AIPAC. AIPAC has tremulous juice in Israel so maybe... But it isn't hopeful. And they are on rhetorical empty. The greater majority of pro Israel Americans are hopelessly uninformed which isn't the best political support one can get.

[S1m0n]

A Katyusha rocket can't be 'aimed' at anything, yet the report claims they were aimed at civillians. How could did they come to that conclusion?

[cavegal]

In case people are unaware, these rockets and launchers are from WWII. They are hardly very effective weapons against the US subsidized IDF.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyusha_rocket_launcher

[Macready]

well said Simon and cavegal . . . . our government should be ashamed of itself . . .all military and financial aid to israel must be stopped immediately

[Tzippi]

Why don't you move your children to Sderot for a few months and see what it feels like. Sure the rockets don't kill or injure people every day but they do often enough. Easy to attack Israeli citizens who find it a difficult way to live, year after year. Why don't you try it and then see if you still feel the same way.

[courtb]

So you fire a gun aimlessly in the air in a crowded park. When the bullets fall and kill people, you claim you weren't "aiming" at innocent people...h­ow do you think that would hold up in a court of law?

[arle]

Isn't that basically the same excuse Israel used for the massive civilian casualties it caused in Gaza?

[CigarGod]

Actually, Katyusha's were/are used in Lebanon.
It is the home made, unguided Qassam that is used in Gaza.

[lungfish]

Doesn't Amnesty Int. know that Israel is God's Chosen Land and they can do no wrong because God said they could have that land. They can do whatever they want to Palestinians including using them as shields. Why not? Of course, if Hamas does it (and they don't) then its evil bad but the IDF can do it. How dare anyone question otherwise?

I have seen the Palestinian situation called a human shield and it is often composed of unarmed men, women and children engaging the IDF intentionally and protecting the militants with their own bodies. This is an act of unity against Israel, not cowardice on the part of Hamas...

Whatever, Israel answers to no one and will kill whomever it chooses in whatever manner is most convenient­....and demand our money and support as it does it.

[ModernTimes1]

Palestinain soldiers hiding behid women and children is not cowardice????
This is EXACTLY the definition of cowardice.
This is Hamas agitprop to say women children do it voluntarily. Most of the time they're herded by Hamas solders in violation of all decency and manhood.

[arle]

How come it's always the cowardly people who going around labeling other people cowards? Oh, right -- they're afraid of being alone, aren't they?

[jwcmass]

I'm not defending Hamas (and often try to remind people here who helped create them--Israel, in 1987)

But the fact that Hamas employs this tactic does NOT give the IDF carte blanche to fire into a crowd of civilians.

It's wrong, and there is nothing you can say that will make it morally justifiable.

But we both know that that is not the only way the IDF killed civilians in Gaza.

You can stick your head in the sand and try to deny the truth if you want-- but facts are stubborn things.

It wasn't for nothing (or concern for the reporters' safety) that the IDF banned them from Gaza during "Cast Lead" -- They obviously didn't want them to see something.

[baffy]

I believe it was the Israelis who were using children as human shields.

[Macready]

well said lungfish . . . totally agree . . . . israel is the problem . . israel is a rogue state and never has accepted responsibilities for their actions . . it is always someone else . . . UN sanctions, trade embargoes and our craven Congress has to be made to pull the plug . . . no more aid for israel

[mymic1]

I have to check my bible history but as i recall the Jews were a disobedient people and the land that God had promised to them was allowed to be conquered and they were displaced to Babylon for generations. Conveniently the Torah stops before history reaches that point in the biblical text but even still after all this time how was it justified to create this nation based on ancient property rights granted by a God not everyone worships????

[LeeCalif]

http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/hope-fleet-news/979-we-are-not-the-story-its-not-just-our-21-kidnapped-passengers

[mazzetta]

The Israeli housing minister today proposed nothing more than segregation inside Israel
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097411.html

He plans to separate arabs from jews and secular jews from the ultra-orthodox ones

... and he stated it in public without receiving any censorship from above

[gbrooks]

Absolutely stunning. Can you imagine a politician like that in America proposing that the gov't impose segregation in this country? He'd be run out on a rail.

Of course, I can't imagine "whites-only" roads in this country either, and they have "Jewish-only" roads criscrossing the West Bank. Such a bizarre place, I guess it'd be like letting the allegedly Christian members of the Klan run the show.

[SiberianRat]

This is simply Jewish Taleban. They also deny women's rights, etc.

[arle]

Remind me again how the pro-Israel lobby keeps saying that we're all Israel-haters because we don't condemn Hamas' crimes too? Because their argument just fell apart.

[mowillis]

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I served 7 years in the IDF. Never did I see an IDF soldier use Palestinians as a human shield. However, I often saw Palestinians and Hamas-affiliated youths use Palestinian children as human shields as they rioted. In much dialoguing with my Palestinian acquaintances, I have never heard my claim denied. So why does no one care to complain about this practice? It is too politically incorrect, I guess. The Queen of the Netherlands did complain about it, but I guess she, I and unbiased reporting went out the window with reality checks. Israel is in a state of war, struggling for her very existence. As long as this is the case, there will be incidents of violence. All I'd ask is that the same standards be applied to the PA and Hamas and its purveyors of hatred toward Israel in news reporting. Mo

[joe107]

thanks for the post. i hope one day people will have the guts to realize that israel is only trying to defend itself

[Wisdo]

your army is composed of liars. They lie about the white phospherous attacks, about drone attacks - always liying and then being caught in the lie.

Therefore if you are IDF you are probably lying. Why dont you go investigate yourself and see if thats true?

[gbrooks]

Well these videos certainly crush the argument he makes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q0sfCBCCqc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLmxLhp0PtU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5HLUYxSv0k

Most moral army in the world? God I hope not.

[deepfreezevideo]

Mo, can I ask you if you had any dealings with radical settlers and if so, when the settlers launched attacks on farmers, what did the IDF do about them.
Remember please that this is the age of the internet when you answer.

[Tzippi]

What of the 13 year old boys kidnapped by arabs on the west bank who tortured and killed them? The is plenty of violence from the arab side. Don't kid yourself! And that land did not belong to them before Israel, it belonged to Jordan. Why didn't Jordan create a state for them?

[hokuspokus]

Ummm, where is the story about the Israelis abducting our former Congress member, Nobel Laureates and other activists earlier this week as the tried to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza?

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/2/nobel_peace_laureate_mairead_maguire_speaks

[Macready]

yes where it is and why wasn't there a big stink . . .

[cavegal]

Thanks for posting that link.

[mowillis]

As I mentioned yesterday.­..I spent 7 years in the IDF as a soldier. Plenty of times I saw Palestinians take little children and use them as human shields while rioting and attacking IDF positions. Never did I see the IDF take Palestinians and use them as human shields. This is an Amnesty International claim that is quite interesting, but not well substantiated. Again, all of experience points the 'other way.' And, why does no one ever complain about this Hamas and Palestinian practice of children as human shields? (BTW, the Queen of the Netherlands did complain about it, but apparently she, I and unbiased reporting are politically incorrect.­) Mo

[cavegal]

So where do you live now? Are you an Israeli citizen, an American citizen or do you have dual citizenship?

[gbrooks]

Even if you never saw it, if you're telling the truth, the cameras have captured a different story. See the video links in my comment above.

How do you feel about your army's use of white phosphorous in a civilian population?

[jwcmass]

Well, you know what they say, the first casualty in war is the truth.

But cameras don't lie. This may be why the IDF was determined to keep them out of Gaza last winter.

[myopinion2]

I challenge anyone to identify a war in which "war crimes" were not committed. The West, having "completed" its 1000 years worth of wars, promulgated well-intended but unrealistic "international laws" about war. Listen, the world would be a better place without war. Everything posssible should be undertaken and tried to avoid the outbreak of war. But just as the poor will always be with us, unfortunately so will war. The Jews and Arabs are going through a period of border designation just as the Western nations did. In the former Yugoslavia and in Iraq, and in Africa, they are going through tribal wars, just as the West did. This doesn't make it right. It doesn't mean that the world shouldn't try to limit avoidable civilian casualties. But these situations need to be perceived and understood through a realistic context if one's analysis is going to be based on and in reality.

[jwcmass]

The problem with your argument is this. With the inevitable spread of WMDs, especially nuclear weapons (which are, in reality, just too easy to make-- one can't "classify" science) these wars --if not stopped-- will make an end of us.

One way or the other war WILL come to an end. Either we as a species will grow up and find saner ways to resolve our differences, or we will go the way of the dinosaurs.

But war WILL be finished.

[omobob]

You either stand for a code of ethical military behavior or allow your soldiers to operate without proper restraint, outside the laws of human decency and code of military conduct. Pick one. You can” be a little pregnant.