Gaza: Airstrike Deaths Raise Concerns on Ground Offensive | WPN World People News

Israel should cease attacks that cause loss of civilian life and property in violation of the laws of war. Human Rights Watch investigated eight Israeli airstrikes that were apparent violations of the laws of war before the ground offensive that began on July 17, 2014. The findings and reports of numerous new civilian casualties heightened concerns for the safety of civilians during the ground offensive.

More than 200 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its ground offensive. The total death toll since the fighting began on July 7 is more than 500, the majority Palestinian civilians, according to reports from United Nations humanitarian agencies.

“After Israeli missiles killed boys on a beach and repeatedly struck a well-marked hospital, one can only be gravely concerned for the safety of civilians caught up in the ground offensive,” said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director. “Israel needs to do more than try to explain away unlawful attacks – it needs to stop them.”

The attacks Human Rights Watch investigated include a missile attack that killed four boys on a Gaza City pier and wounded three others, multiple strikes over several days on a hospital for paralyzed and elderly patients, attacks on an apparent civilian residence and media worker’s car, and four previously documented strikes. In many, if not all, of these cases, Human Rights Watch found no evidence of a military target. Israeli forces’ failure to direct attacks at a military target violates the laws of war. Israeli forces may also have knowingly or recklessly attacked people who were clearly civilians, such as young boys, and civilian structures, including a hospital – laws-of-war violations that are indicative of war crimes.

Palestinian armed groups have continued to fire rockets that are indiscriminate when directed at Israeli population centers, in violation of the laws of war. Ouda Lafi al-Waj, 32, was killed and four of his family members were wounded when a rocket struck their home in an “unrecognized” Bedouin community near the town of Dimona in southern Israel on July 19. A rocket badly wounded two Bedouin girls in another “unrecognized” village on July 17.

On July 16, staff of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) found 20 rockets stored in an empty school building. UNRWA promptly removed them, notified all parties, and condemned the military use of its facilities by an unidentified Palestinian armed group. Palestinian armed groups should end unlawful attacks on Israeli population centers and avoid deploying forces and munitions in areas that unnecessarily place civilians at risk.

Israeli airstrikes and tank fire hit the Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital on three days from July 11 to July 17, wounding four patients and staff. While Israel gave various warnings before the attacks, the chronically ill, elderly, and paralyzed patients – none of them mobile – could not be moved quickly or without grave risk to their health.

The laws of war place obligations on all parties to ensure that the wounded and sick receive medical care. Hospitals have special legal protections and may be attacked only if being used to commit acts harmful to the enemy. Israeli claims that armed groups were launching rockets 100 meters from the hospital was insufficient justification for repeatedly striking the hospital. The warnings did not remedy the illegality of repeatedly striking a hospital without a lawful military justification. The fact that Israel used accurate missiles, as well as direct tank fire, yet still struck the hospital, suggests intentional or reckless attacks on the hospital, which are war crimes.

On July 16, an Israeli missile struck a shack on a Gaza City pier, killing four young boys from the Bakr family who were playing nearby. Seconds later, another missile struck, wounding a fisherman and three more children on the beach fleeing the scene. The Israeli military said it attacked the shack because it was an “identified Hamas structure” but mistakenly targeted the boys – aged 10 to 13 – as “fleeing fighters.” The Israelis did not say why the structure was a lawful military objective – a “Hamas structure” is not a military target unless used for military purposes. Attacks that are not directed at a specific military target are unlawful. Nor can an attacker lawfully presume that anyone seen fleeing an attack is a combatant, and in cases of doubt must presume the person is a civilian, protected from attack.

Evidence at the scene indicates that the attack was carried out with Spike missiles, which have sensors that allow the operator to see the target even after the missile is fired and divert them mid-course if the target is not clearly military.

An Israeli airstrike in Rafah on July 11 killed five members of the Ghannam family. Human Rights Watch visited the home three days after the attack and found no evidence that it was being used for any military purpose, such as deploying fighters or storing weapons. Local residents said that members of the extended Ghannam family are affiliated with Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian faction with an armed wing, but that none of the home’s residents or those killed belonged to the group. Israel has not provided a reason for this strike, as far as Human Rights Watch has been able to determine.

On July 9, an Israeli airstrike killed Hamed Shehab, who worked as a driver for Media24, a Palestinian news agency, and wounded 20 people in a busy area near a mosque. Shehab’s car, marked “TV” on the hood in large letters, was struck while he was driving in southern Gaza City to pick up a fellow media worker. Shehab’s colleagues said he had no affiliation to any armed group. The Israeli military has not provided a justification for that attack, as far as Human Rights Watch has been able to determine. Absent an adequate explanation, the attack was apparently an unlawful attack on a civilian that could also have been expected to cause high civilian casualties because it took place in a crowded neighborhood.

The Israeli military’s stated objective for the ground offensive in Gaza is to destroy tunnels, rockets, and other infrastructure used by Palestinian armed groups that Israeli airstrikes could not destroy. The last ground offensive in Gaza, from December 2008 to January 2009, resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians, many as the result of unlawful air and artillery attacks, and the unlawful destruction of civilian property. Israel prosecuted only four military personnel for offenses during that conflict, and the heaviest sentence handed down was a seven-and-a-half-month prison term for credit card theft, heightening concerns of continuing impunity in the current fighting.

To deter further violations and seek accountability, Palestine and Israel should seek the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Human Rights Watch said. Allies should suspend transfers of any materiel to the warring parties that has been documented or credibly alleged to have been used in violation of the laws of war, as well as withhold funding or support for such materiel. Third, countries should support the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish a fact-finding mission to impartially investigate and report promptly and publicly on violations by all sides, and issue recommendations to the parties and the UN.

“If the international community wants to prevent civilian suffering, it should urgently put the parties on notice that war crimes during this Gaza escalation will not get a free pass,” Goldstein said. “The US and other countries should stop pressuring Palestine not to go to the ICC – pressure that is both misguided and, as evidence of serious violations mounts, hostile to the need for justice.”

Source:Human Rights Watch