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United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch: Israel Is Targeting CIVILIANS In Gaza
Preface - related news from this week:
Update: Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has asked the U.S. for help in avoiding war crime charges.
Amnesty International just released a report stating:
An immediate investigation is needed into mounting evidence that the Israel Defense Forces launched apparently deliberate attacks against hospitals and health professionals in Gaza, which have left six medics dead, said Amnesty International as it released disturbing testimonies from doctors, nurses, and ambulance personnel working in the area.
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“Even more alarming is the mounting evidence that the Israeli army has targeted health facilities or professionals. Such attacks are absolutely prohibited by international law and would amount to war crimes. They only add to the already compelling argument that the situation should be referred to the International Criminal Court.”
Human Rights Watch released a report this week headlined, “Gaza: Israeli Soldiers Shoot and Kill Fleeing Civilians“, stating:
Israeli forces in the southern Gaza town of Khuza’a fired on and killed civilians in apparent violation of the laws of war in several incidents between July 23 and 25, 2014. Deliberate attacks on civilians who are not participating in the fighting are war crimes.
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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported that on July 25, a Red Crescent volunteer [the equivalent of the Red Cross] was mortally wounded in an Israeli attack in Khuza’a, and other volunteers who tried to rescue him were fired on. Under the laws of war, medical workers are civilians who may not be targeted for attack.
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Human Rights Watch investigated several incidents between July 23 and 25 when, local residents said, Israeli forces opened fire on civilians trying to flee Khuza’a, but no Palestinian fighters were present at the time and no firefights were taking place.
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“The horrors of war are bad enough for civilians even when all sides abide by the law,” [Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa director] said. “But it’s abhorrent that Israeli forces are making matters even worse by so blatantly violating the laws of war designed to spare civilians.”
Last month, Human Rights Watch documented that the types of weapons used by the Israeli military prove that the killing of civilians was intentional.
Human Rights Watch executive director (and former federal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York) Kenneth Roth – said:
It was the subject of fairly relentless bombardment. Finally, after a couple of days, on July 23rd through July 25th, families slowly tried to leave Khuza’a for their larger city of Khan Younis nearby, hoping to find refuge there. And as you would do in a situation like this, they raised white flags. They did everything they could to make clear that they were not militants. But on several different occasions, Israeli forces shot at them and actually killed some among the people who were fleeing.
***
No matter how many times the Israeli military spokesmen scream, “Human shields! Human shields!” most of the people being killed in Gaza are being killed because Israel is paying insufficient care to saving civilian lives. There’s been case after case in which Israel has used the wrong weaponry or has shot at people with many civilians around. And these, in our view, are war crimes.
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The only real recourse that we see is to the International Criminal Court.
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[The Israeli soldiers] use, for example—The New York Times did an interesting study yesterday—heavy artillery, 155-millimeter artillery, which is utterly inappropriate in a densely populated area, because this kind of artillery is considered accurate if it lands anyplace within a 50-meter radius. You know, you can imagine there are a lot of civilians in that area. It has a fragmentation and blast effect of 300 meters. And nonetheless, Israel lets off barrages of these heavy artilleries. The New York Times documented that yesterday. Or they’ll bring in their air force and simply bomb, even though there are many, many civilians in these areas.
***
We’ve gone through this in the prior Gaza efforts. We went through it with the Hezbollah war. I actually, you know, after the Hezbollah war, went and briefed the senior Israeli lawyer for the military, describing many of these same problems, the fact that you can’t just issue a warning and assume that everybody left, in that case, is Hezbollah. So, you know, they are completely on notice. We’ve accused them of this in the past. They just keep repeating it. And it seems to be almost by design to try to make the people of Gaza pay a price because Hamas is ruling over them…. I mean, that’s a war crime logic, and Israel is oftentimes acting according to the same logic in Gaza.
The UN stated last month that Israeli attacks on UN shelters housing civilians are intentional.
An Israeli soldier explicitly confirmed:
Palestinian civilians killed during the Shuja’iyya massacre of July 20 were deliberately targeted ….
The unofficial reason was to enable the soldiers to take out their frustrations and pain at losing their fellow soldiers on the Palestinian refugees in the neighborhood. Under the pretext of the so-called ‘security threat,’ soldiers were directed to carry out a pre-planned attack of revenge on Palestinian civilians.”
The United Nations reported in 2009 that Israel was intentionally targeting civilians in Gaza.
Wikipedia summarizes the findings of the 2009 UN report:
The report disputes Israel’s claim that the Gaza war would have been conducted as a response to rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, saying that at least in part the war was targeted against the “people of Gaza as a whole”. Intimidation against the population was seen as an aim of the war.[70] The report also says that Israel’s military assault on Gaza was designed to “humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability”.[49]
The report focused on 36 cases that it said constituted a representative sample. In 11 of these episodes, it said the Israeli military carried out direct attacks against civilians, including some in which civilians were shot “while they were trying to leave their homes to walk to a safer place, waving white flags”.[49] Talking to Bill Moyers Journal, Goldstone said that the committee chose 36 incidents that represented the highest death toll, where there seemed to be little or no military justification for what happened.[71] According to the report, another alleged war crime committed by IDF include “wanton” destruction of food production, water and sewerage facilities; the report also asserts that some attacks, which were supposedly aimed to kill small number of combatants amidst significant numbers of civilians, were disproportionate.[49]
The report concluded that Israel violated the Fourth Geneva Convention by targeting civilians, which it labeled “a grave breach”.[72] It also claimed that the violations were “systematic and deliberate“, which placed the blame in the first place on those who designed, planned, ordered and oversaw the operations.[73]
And a prominent Jewish leader says that Israel intentionally massacred Palestinian civilians in 1948 in order to terrorize the population … and is still doing the same thing today.
Postscript: There is plenty of circumstantial evidence for targeting of civilians as well, in the form of calls for genocide and mass murder against Palestinians.
For example, the Times of Israel recently published a piece calling for genocide on the Palestinians.
And Andrew Sullivan notes:
What is one to make of the fact that the deputy speaker of the Knesset has called for ethnic cleansing in Gaza?
He’s not an obscure blogger for the Times of Israel. He is a luminary of the Likud – a man who got 23 percent of the vote in a contest for the Likud Party leadership. He was appointed to his current high position by Benjamin Netanyahu.
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His strategic goal is to “turn Gaza into Jaffa, a flourishing Israeli city with a minimum number of hostile civilians.” (Modern Jaffa, of course, was built on the ethnic cleansing of most of its Palestinian inhabitants in 1948.)
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In Israel, this theme is intensifying:
The statements of Ovadia Yosef, whose recent passing was met with flattering memorials both in Israel and the US, are legendary. The former Chief Rabbi of Israel and spiritual leader of many Middle Eastern Jews, said, among other things, that Palestinians “should perish from the world” and that “it is forbidden to be merciful to them”; of non-Jews in general, he declared that “Goyim were born only to serve us.” Despite comments like these, his funeral last October was the largest in the country’s history, with 800,000 Israelis attending. In the past month, Rabbi Noam Perel, head of Bnei Akiva, the largest Jewish religious youth group in the world, called for the mass-murder of Palestinians and for their foreskins to be scalped and brought back as trophies, alluding to an episode in the Book of Samuel; and a Jerusalem city councillor, in charge of security, encouraged a crowd to mimic the Biblical character of Phineas (Pinchas in Hebrew), who murdered a fellow Israelite and his Midianite lover for the “crime” of miscegenation…
One local chief rabbi ruled that bombing Palestinian civilians is permissible, while another, considered a “liberal” by Israeli standards, declared the assault on Gaza to be a holy war mandated by the Torah–one which must be merciless.
Today, the former head of Israel’s National Security Council, Giora Eiland, called for treating all Gazans, including women, as enemy combatants:
We are seeing now that despite the IDF’s impressive fighting, despite the absolute military supremacy, we are in a sort of “strategic tie.” What would have been the right thing to do? We should have declared war against the state of Gaza (rather than against the Hamas organization), and in a war as in a war.
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And we are not merely talking about a hypothetical situation. The grotesque death toll from Gaza is a distillation of this mindset – revealing at best a chilling contempt for Arab life and at worst, with the shelling of schools and shelters, a policy of indiscriminate hatred and revenge. Yes, killing women and children in shelters is about as low as you can get in wartime. As the State Department, in a rare moment of public candor, noted, it is appalling and disgraceful.
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what's better sources, exactly, shit for brains? Sheldon Adelson's newspaper, perhaps?
"Yes, we can admit it now, we were the ones who put Hitler in Power."
If vou dont want you ass kicked dont start a fight
Quit thowing rockets and your shit wont get blown up
Sounds simple to me
sounds simple because you're simple.
Hamas didn't start the fight - the real story here is Netanyahu et al started it on a fabricated pretext, not that the Jewish Supremacist/hasbara troll crowd much cares about the facts.
Sorry but I do recall the Jews starting a fight each day they push palestinians off their land and bulldoze homes and olive groves down to build illegal jewish settlements.
Come no dude dont give me this. So a crook comes to your house to rob and kill you and you shot him and then he says in court that you started it.
Leave your BS at home it doesn't wash here.
When Mel Gibson's ISRAELI bodyguard didn't drive a drunk Mel Gibson home a JEWISH Deputy just happened to be on the road home to Mel's house, just a coincidence of course. Mel is alleged to have said "JEWS START ALL THE WARS" and that was the end of Mel's career in Hollyweird. Hollyweird Super-agent, Ari Emanuel, brother of Chicago Mayor and former IDF member Ron Israel Emanuel, said that Mel would never work again in Hollyweird, and Mel hasn't. But to put Mel's alleged statement in context this was the time when Israel was saturation bombing civilian and infrastructure of Lebanon, this was 2006 and US was rushing more cluster bombs to Israel and more. The horrific destruction rained down upon Lebanese civlians and infrastructure was all accomplished with weaponry WE PAID for with our TAX DOLLARS.
We pay and pay, like for that WALL-FENCE that keeps illegal immigrants out of Israel, we paid for it. OF course Jews in America are AGAINST a wall for us and changed our immigration law back in 1965.
We pay and pay and pay:
http://www.wrmea.org/wrmea-archives/251-washington-report-archives-2000-...
The Costs to American Taxpayers of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: $3 Trillion
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June 2003, pages 20-23
Thomas R. Stauffer is a Washington, DC-based engineer and economist who has taught the economics of energy and the Middle East at Harvard University and Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.
And how much did the war on Iraq cost us?
And why did the US go into Iraq?
http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/snieg_oilwar.htm
http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/snieg_isrorgs.htm
http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/conc_toc.htm
You can't fight cowards without killing their women and children. Besides, a dead Gazan woman means no future terrorists from her womb and a dead Gazan child means one less future tunnel terrorist.
Telling it exactly like it is.
opposite of how it is. Every IDF soldier is a genocide terrorist marching in the foot steps of Hitler with Nazi pride.
" Telling it exactly like it is in my seriously fucked up head. Shit, where did I leave my crack pipe?"
FIFY. You are quite welcome.
Reality is a bitch, most can't handle it. Both sides are victims of religion and unless this planet turns crispy this will go on forever.
Religion will get you killed.
I find it interesting that you equate your advocating the murder of women and children to reality. The reality is that you are obviously mentally defective.
"advocating"...
You have nothing when all you can do is twist my post. You have a good day.
" Besides, a dead Gazan woman means no future terrorists from her womb and a dead Gazan child means one less future tunnel terrorist."
Ummm, that is a quote from your comment. Perhaps you should look up the definition of advocate, Einstein. I think it is your panties that are getting twisted when faced with actual reality.
Describing the benefits of an action is not the same thing as advocating that action. I could abhor the action, but that would not change the benefits of that action.
How about this from the famous Major General Mattityahu Peled's own son? Miko Peled? When the son of an Israeli war hero starts telling it like it REALLY is, you know we're near the end of the line. The truth is that the Israeli Zionists revealed themselves to the public for what they really are many years ago, but it's only now that they are beginning to engage in wholesale slaughter and inexcusable crimes against INNOCENT WOMEN AND CHILDREN that the world has no choice but to shake its head. Even the brain dead Israel Firsters (the confused and intellectually immature Christians) are in disbelief. Their world order and good/evil compass now failing them, their ignorance staring back at them in the mirror. The only supporters left are those who have been brainwashed and conditioned beyond the point of no rehabilitation, those who are being PAID to support them, and those who are just so naturally stupid that they are purely mimics and support whoever seems to be in power or be on the "winning" side.
Now let's hear it from the Trolls and the Apologists. The Anti-Semitic argument has lost its teeth. The biblical argument has lost its teeth thanks to SCIENCE, aka DNA REVEALED.
A true Terrorist State.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etXAm-OylQQ
Is it true that the Muslims would like to see the Zionist state destroyed? It either is true or it isn't. Which is it?
Hamas instigates and cares not who gets caught in the crossfire.
Incorrect. Israel instigates: it bombs children FIRST, bulldozes children FIRST and puts them in mass graves.
Every action after that to attack the invader in Palestine that illegally & fraudulently calls itself "Isreal" (isn'treal!) is an act of self-defense.
Keep writing Geo. Your reasoning is moronic. If Israel were killing for killing's sake, why not kill people in Egypt? Syria? Hamas' charter calls for the destruction of Israel AND for putting their death rockets in and by schools and hospitals. They force, by power of death, their citizens to stay in their houses while Israeli missiles attack launch locations. News reporters form India documented all of this. Yet you rant and rave. The blindest people are those who will not see. That's you, GW.
they WILL kill in Egypt, Syria & elsewhere - one portion of land at a time. They can't mobilize enough troops to do so until the genocide of Palestine is complete. They will do it.
NONE OF THESE LOCATIONS ARE LAUNCH LOCATIONS.
Children are the #1 target every time. Unarmed children.
Right Chipped Ham, or SOS, if they were killing for killings sake why not shoot up a U.S. Navy ship and kill a bunch of U.S. military?
I saw whut u did tharrr!
Who keeps breaking cease fires? Your favorite put-upon terrorist group, Hamas. That's who.
http://twitter.com/IDFSpokesperson/status/497563969930817536/photo/1
I guess you must work for the state dept since you somehow think twitter is a credible source of anything. I don't allow tools of the state in the shed. They decrease the value of everything nearby and smell very, very bad.
But yet you pay attention to the twitters from Palestinians giving a blow by blow of how Israel is terrorizing them.
Egypt and Syria can shoot back real bullets.
I don't read one word of your crap. The headline is enuf for me to say, go fuck yourself.
we should create a new movement.....Atheists for Peace.
I would line up to defend the Gaza Strip against any settlers that try to move in . yes I would die keeping the Jews out. this is not their land any more than Texas is still Mexican.
as well the American congress should also be fully accountable to at least give most Americans some form of Pride.
we should create a new movement.....Atheists for Peace.
I would line up to defend the Gaza Strip against any settlers that try to move in . yes I would die keeping the Jews out. this is not their land any more than Texas is still Mexican.
as well the American congress should also be fully accountable to at least give most Americans some form of Pride.
we should create a new movement.....Atheists for Peace.
I would line up to defend the Gaza Strip against any settlers that try to move in . yes I would die keeping the Jews out. this is not their land any more than Texas is still Mexican.
as well the American congress should also be fully accountable to at least give most Americans some form of Pride.
In all of history, the land has only ever belonged to those who can control it. That is the only form of ownership that counts. If you seriously think that any temporary person can own a piece of the earth.
Israel: A Rogue Nation Commits Genocide As Palestine Is Destroyed Again
George Washington might be 300 years old, but it's the anti-semetism that gives if away.
Pro-Palestine is not anti-semite.
Here's a newsflash...Gaza is targeting civilians in Israel!!!!
Newsflash! They're not! They're targeting invaders in Palestine while Israel plants human shields & calls them "Settlers". There is no isreal, only Palestine.
Now that is going against te MSM Narrative. Careful or you could end up in a Dept Of Homeland Security re-education facility.
are you serious? The MSM literally is owned by dual citizens of Israel.
war is hell
UN is a gong show
excellent work, george.
...and then there is this-
'i killed 13 children today - israeli sniper'
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/07/31/373518/israeli-sniper-admits-kil...
...and then there is this-
'MOTHERS OF ALL PALESTINIANS SHOULD ALSO BE KILLED,' SAYS ISRAELI POLITICIAN'
http://www.dailysabah.com/mideast/2014/07/14/mothers-of-all-palestinians...
When we levelled entire cities like Dresden, Hiroshima and others did we kill any medics?
Who is this "we" you speak of.........jackass.
Hamas is a terrorist organization and I am happy to see Israel wiping their ass with them. As for the people of Gaza, they voted for Hamas so they can live with the consequences. Tough shit!
Israel is a terrorist organization and ZERO people of Palestine voted them in. They're a military invading terrorist force, not a nation.
I suppose you think all the militia who showed up to protect civilians from terrorist snipers who belonged to the federal government are themselves, terrorist militias? Not freedom fighters or OATH KEEPERS?
And for the peeps of the USSA, ditto onthe consequences for voting Obama. Twice.
So George,
When Hamas fires a M-302 rocket into Israel are they also "Targeting CIVILIANS"?
Why do so many children of Israel play soccer indoors?
How have the civilians of Gaza who've dared speak against Hamas fared?
Where the three dead Jewish school kids, that precipitated the latest round of tit for tat, civilians?
Self defense is not a war crime, this is a war and all wars have innocent casualties. Siting sources like Jimmy, a biased failure looking for legitimacy like Jesse the race pimp showing up to stir hate and hug poor people, isn't convincing me Israel is the party in this war "Targeting CIVILIANS".
Jews who hate Arabs, Arabs who hate Jews, even those who "might be a Jew" who hates Jews are ALL ignorant racists and ALL RACISTS OF EVERY STRIPE ARE EVIL!
Welcome!
The 3 boys were not kidnapped and killed by Hamas, but by a local group that disregards all Hamas instructions. ISIS actually claimed credit.
Hamas shooting rockets into Israel is WRONG. It not only might kill someone - and is therefore wrong - but it is also stupid and counter-productive.
But those who have seen the rockets say they are nothing but souped up firecrackers, that Irondome stops most of them, and that they rarely if ever hit people.
Also, the argument thay 'they' do bad stuff so it must be OK for us to do even worse stuff does not fly for me.
'We' by which I suppose I mean USA and our bullied or bought allies, portray ourselves as an examples of democracy, decency and a force for good in the world. We should be above resorting to slaughter, torture, illegal surveillance etc. the moment the going gets tough.
If we descend to the tactics of terrrorists ourselves, we have no authority and the world has no hope.
New testament kind of stuff. Not the Old.
Ok. The fanatics that are trying to kill my kids are rarely successful,so I should ignore it. I can afford to lose a kid or two. I know, how about we use your kids instead of mine? Maybe you would have a slightly different opinion.