This article from the Financial Times, summarizes the findings of an Amnesty International report on the Israeli invasion of Gaza in January. It is a must read.
The Israeli invasion into Gaza was launched in response to the launching of Qassam rockets into Israel by Hamas. The report sternly denounces these attacks and
urges Hamas to renounce its policy of unlawful rocket attacks against civilian population centres in Israel and to prevent other armed groups from carrying out such attacks.
While the rockets have killed less than 20 people in Israel, the psychological effect and destruction of property has been devastating. Moreover, the rockets have no guidance system and can only be lobbed indiscriminately, recklessly endangering civilians.
But the bulk of the report’s criticism is directed at Israel for its excessive use of force. It is worth quoting Amnesty’s statement regarding the report at some length.
The scale and intensity of the attacks on Gaza were unprecedented. Some 300 children and hundreds of other unarmed civilians who took no part in the conflict were among the 1,400 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces.
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Amnesty International found that the victims of the attacks it investigated were not caught in the crossfire during battles between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces, nor were they shielding militants or other military objects. Many were killed when their homes were bombed while they slept. Others were sitting in their yard or hanging the laundry on the roof. Children were struck while playing in their bedrooms or on the roof, or near their homes. Paramedics and ambulances were repeatedly attacked while attempting to rescue the wounded or recover the dead.
“The deaths of so many children and other civilians cannot be dismissed simply as ‘collateral damage’, as argued by Israel,” said Donatella Rovera. “Many questions remain to be answered about these attacks and about the fact that the strikes continued unabated despite the rising civilian death toll.”
More than 3,000 homes were destroyed and some 20,000 damaged in Israeli attacks which reduced entire neighbourhoods of Gaza to rubble and left an already dire economic situation in ruins. Much of the destruction was wanton and could not be justified on grounds of “military necessity”.
The Israeli Army has rejected the report saying it is “unbalanced, and wrongly interprets the law of wars.”
The full text of the report can be downloaded here (PDF).