Amnesty International accuses Israel of war crimes in Gaza

Amnesty International has released a report today on Israel’s conduct in war during the savage bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip in December 2008 – January 2009. Amnesty argues in the report, ‘Operation ‘CAST LEAD’: 22 Days of Death and Destruction’, that the Israeli Army broke the laws on warfare and accuses Israel of committing war crimes.

AI investigators, who spent a month in Gaza and southern Israel surveying the devastation and interviewing eye witnesses, found that hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed by the Israeli Army using high-precision weapons while others were shot at close range.

AI states that the Israeli army’s behaviour, “showed elements of reckless conduct, disregard for civilian lives and property and a consistent failure to distinguish between military targets and civilians and civilian objects”.

Amnesty also levels accusations of war crimes at Hamas for its firing of rockets and criticises the organisation for endangering the lives of civilians. Over 1400 Palestinians were killed during the conflict, while thirteen Israelis were killed, including three civilians who died as a result of rocket fire. 

The Israeli military has rejected the report’s findings, saying that it did not properly recognize “the unbearable reality of nine years of incessant and indiscriminate rocket fire on the citizens of Israel.”

Amnesty’s report states that some 300 Palestinian children and hundreds of other unarmed civilians were killed during the offensive.