Amnesty International accuses Israel of committing war crimes during Gaza war this summer
JERUSALEM – Amnesty International on Wednesday accused Israel of committing war crimes during the war in the Gaza Strip this summer, saying it displayed "callous indifference" in attacks on family homes in the densely populated coastal area.
The Gaza war left more than 2,100 Palestinians dead, including many civilians according to Palestinian and U.N. officials. Israel says the number of militants killed was much higher and accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and six civilians were killed.
Amnesty said in a report released Wednesday that "Israeli forces killed scores of Palestinian civilians in attacks targeting houses full of families, which in some cases have amounted to war crimes."
Israel's foreign ministry rejected the report's findings, saying the London-based rights group "ignores documented war crimes perpetrated by Hamas."
"The report does not mention the word terror in relation to Hamas or other armed Palestinian groups, nor mentions tunnels built by Hamas to infiltrate Israel and perpetrate terror attacks," the ministry said.
Israel launched the Gaza operation in early July in response to stepped-up rocket attacks on Israeli cities by the coastal area's militant Palestinian Hamas rulers.
The operation followed a crackdown by Israeli forces in the West Bank, where troops arrested scores of Hamas members, in response to the kidnapping and killings of three teenage Israelis in June by Hamas operatives.
Several weeks later, Jewish extremists kidnapped and burned to death a Palestinian teenager in east Jerusalem in an apparent revenge attack.
But the summer war was the fiercest conflict between the two sides in years.
"Israeli forces have brazenly flouted the laws of war by carrying out a series of attacks on civilian homes, displaying callous indifference to the carnage caused," said Philip Luther, Director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program.
During the 50 days of fighting, Hamas fired thousands of rockets and mortars at Israeli towns and cities, including Tel Aviv, and used a sophisticated tunnel network to carry out attacks on Israeli military encampments in southern Israel, close to the Gaza border. Some of the tunnels also had exits abutting Israeli civilian communities, giving Hamas the ability to attack them as well.
For its part, Israeli forces carried out sustained aerial, artillery and infantry attacks in Gaza, many of which the Amnesty report found to be indiscriminate.
Israel says the military was as careful as possible to avoid civilian casualties citing its system of providing warning to civilians that strikes on their buildings were coming when possible.
It argues that the heavy civilian death toll is Hamas' fault, accusing the Islamic militant group of launching rockets — and drawing retaliation — from school yards, residential areas and mosques.
"The report exposes a pattern of attacks on civilian homes by Israeli forces which have shown a shocking disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians, who were given no warning and had no chance to flee," Luther said
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The Middle East is rife with war crimes. All of them should be brought to justice and sanctioned accordingly. The Israeli assault against civilian Gaza is well documented and damages easily assessed. Civil and criminal charges should be investigated and prosecuted.
ReplyDeleteWe are already dealing out justice to ISIS. They will be killed at an increasing rate.
Amnesty International has credibility. It will get interesting.
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DeleteWhen will the US pay our tab for Iraq?
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BREAKING: Israeli police have again closed access to the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem to Palestinian worshipers as clashes continue in the heart of the city.
ReplyDeleteIt comes a day after an Israeli minister said the mosque would be replaced with a Jewish temple.
Minister calls for third Temple to be built
Potentially explosive statement by Jewish Home’s Uri Ariel breaks taboo against damaging status quo on Temple Mount
http://www.timesofisrael.com/minister-calls-for-third-temple-to-be-built/
The statement from Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) breaks a long-standing taboo on high-ranking government officials speaking about changing the fragile status quo on the holy and contested esplanade, and will likely draw ire from official Israeli circles and anger the Arab and Muslim world.
“It is time to honestly admit that Israeli society is ill – and it is our duty to treat this disease,”
ReplyDeleteRivlin told the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities on Sunday at a conference titled “From Xenophobia to Accepting the Other.”
“The tension between Jews and Arabs within the State of Israel has risen to record heights, and the relationship between all parties has reached a new low,” he said.
“We have all witnessed the shocking sequence of incidents and violence taking place by both sides.
The epidemic of violence is not limited to one sector or another, it permeates every area and doesn’t skip any arena.
There is violence in soccer stadiums as well as in the academia.
There is violence in the social media and in everyday discourse, in hospitals and in schools.”
Reuven Rivlin, President of Israel
The Real Danger to Israel's Security Is Netanyahu
ReplyDeleteAlon Ben-Meir
As prime minister, Netanyahu has consistently invoked his solemn duty to protect Israel's national security. Ironically, he has become the single most reckless individual who is imperiling the very security of the state. One need not look far and wide to discern Netanyahu's disingenuousness and misguided policies that have only undermined Israel's future security.
He uses his political skills to deceive and mislead in order to "protect himself from political defeat" while disregarding what is best for the future of the state. He surrounds himself with cronies blinded by their skewed ideological zeal with no morals or scruples to support his sinister political agenda.
To be sure, Israel under Netanyahu's stewardship is globally on the defensive, isolated, threatened from within and without, loathed and criticized by friends and foes alike, and with no prospect to achieve peace,
which jeopardizes not only Israel's security but its very existence.
ReplyDeleteNetanyahu and Lapid are charlatans of the lowest order
I'd love to be able to apologize to the prime minister and finance minister for writing ill of them.
Unfortunately, every word has been true.
By Yossi Sarid
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.620026
“It is time to honestly admit that Israeli society is ill – and it is our duty to treat this disease,”
ReplyDeleteRivlin told the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities on Sunday at a conference titled “From Xenophobia to Accepting the Other.”
“The tension between Jews and Arabs within the State of Israel has risen to record heights, and the relationship between all parties has reached a new low,” he said.
“We have all witnessed the shocking sequence of incidents and violence taking place by both sides.
The epidemic of violence is not limited to one sector or another, it permeates every area and doesn’t skip any arena.
There is violence in soccer stadiums as well as in the academia.
There is violence in the social media and in everyday discourse, in hospitals and in schools.”
- Reuven Rivlin, President of Israel
Then, to top it off, the greatest proof positive that ISrael is no ally of the United States ...
ReplyDeleteIsrael prefers Daesh (al-Qeada) in Syria, over the Alawites, Christians and their Kurdish allies
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren told the Jerusalem Post that Israel so wanted Assad out and his Iranian backers weakened, that Israel would accept al-Qaeda operatives taking power in Syria.
Israel would accept al-Qaeda operatives taking power in Syria.
Delete- Michael Oren, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States at the time he spoke this truth.
“It is time to honestly admit that Israeli society is ill – and it is our duty to treat this disease,”
Delete- Reuven Rivlin, President of Israel
Israel Radio reported that police chased the rioters into the al-Aqsa Mosque. Police took the rare measure of entering several meters into the mosque, where they saw a stash of stones, bottles, and Molotov cocktails that the demonstrators had prepared.
ReplyDeleteThe Arab Israeli Balad party issued a statement condemning police for “playing with fire” by taking the “provocative” and “disproportionate” step of entering the mosque, further charging that they caused damage to holy books.
Read more: Temple Mount reopens after rioting forces closure | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/temple-mount-rioting-forces-closure/#ixzz3ICtDd9J2
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... play silly games, win silly prizes ...
ReplyDeleteRe: "Police took the rare measure of entering several meters into the mosque, where they saw a stash of stones, bottles, and Molotov cocktails that the demonstrators had prepared."
Those insensitive Israelis do not understand the nuances of Muslim worship.
One word of advice to the Israelis: Being nice isn't working; consider other options and STICK with them.
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