[R-G] Amnesty: Israel repeatedly breached rules of war in Gaza

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1088912.html

Last update - 13:53 28/05/2009  	 	 	
Amnesty: Israel repeatedly breached rules of war in Gaza
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: IDF, Gaza

Amnesty International has accused Israel of repeatedly violating the  
rules of armed conflict during its recent offensive against Hamas in  
the Gaza Strip.

"Israeli forces repeatedly breached the laws of war, including by  
carrying out direct attacks on civilians and civilian buildings and  
attacks targeting Palestinian militants that caused a disproportionate  
toll among civilians," the human rights watchdog said in its annual  
report.

The report states that 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the offensive  
- including 300 children - and that 5,000 people were wounded. The  
Israel Defense Forces, however, says 1,166 Palestinians were killed,  
the vast majority of whom were Hamas militants.
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The report mentions Israel's stated goal in the 3-week campaign: The  
desire to stem rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian militants on  
southern Israel. The report goes on to note that three Israeli  
civilians were killed during the operation, which was in December 2008  
and January 2009, in addition to the seven Israeli civilians who were  
killed by Qassam rockets and other Palestinian attacks launched from  
Gaza in 2008.

According to the report, the hostilities erupted after suffering the  
consequences of an Israel-led blockade on the Gaza Strip for a year- 
and-a-half.

"The blockade throttled almost all economic life and led growing  
numbers of Palestinians to become dependent on international food aid;  
even terminally ill patients were prevented from leaving to obtain  
medical care that could not be provided by Gaza's resource- and  
medicine-starved hospitals," Amnesty said.

The report also accuses Israeli security forces of destroying many  
Palestinian homes in the West Bank on the pretext that they were built  
illegally.

Jerusalem-based watchdog NGO Monitor responded to the report by  
accusing Amnesty International of focusing disproportionately on  
Israeli policy in Gaza and of not paying enough attention to the cross- 
border rocket attacks against Israel civilians.

The watchdog, headed by Bar Ilan University Professor Gerald  
Steinberg, added that Amnesty's biased and disproportionate obsession  
with Israel reached its peak during the latest conflict in Gaza.

According to NGO Monitor, Amnesty International published more than 20  
declarations during the Gaza offensive, most of them critical of  
Israel, even while violations of human rights included a massacre of  
more than 600 villagers by Ugandan rebels in the Democratic Republic  
of Congo to which Amnesty devoted minimal attention.