To send Sec. Clinton an email urging an
investigation of Israel's use of US-made white
phosphorus artillery shells in Gaza, go to:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=11787&tr=y&auid=4542038
MCM
Suspend military aid to Israel, Amnesty urges
Obama after detailing US weapons used in Gaza
* White phosphorus shells traced back to America
* Activists call for arms embargoes on both sides
* Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
* The Guardian, Monday 23 February 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/23/military-aid-israel-amnesty
Detailed evidence has emerged of Israel's
extensive use of US-made weaponry during its war
in Gaza last month, including white phosphorus
artillery shells, 500lb bombs and Hellfire
missiles.
In a report released today, Amnesty International
detailed the weapons used and called for an
immediate arms embargo on Israel and all
Palestinian armed groups. It called on the Obama
administration to suspend military aid to Israel.
The human rights group said that those arming
both sides in the conflict "will have been well
aware of a pattern of repeated misuse of weapons
by both parties and must therefore take
responsibility for the violations perpetrated".
The US has long been the largest arms supplier to
Israel; under a current 10-year agreement
negotiated by the Bush administration the US will
provide $30bn (£21bn) in military aid to Israel.
"As the major supplier of weapons to Israel, the
USA has a particular obligation to stop any
supply that contributes to gross violations of
the laws of war and of human rights," said
Malcolm Smart, Amnesty's Middle East and North
Africa programme director. "To a large extent,
Israel's military offensive in Gaza was carried
out with weapons, munitions and military
equipment supplied by the USA and paid for with
US taxpayers' money."
For their part, Palestinian militants in Gaza
were arming themselves with "unsophisticated
weapons" including rockets made in Russia, Iran
and China and bought from "clandestine sources",
it said. About 1,300 Palestinians were killed and
more than 4,000 injured during the three-week
conflict. On the Israeli side 13 were killed,
including three civilians. Amnesty said Israel's
armed forces carried out "direct attacks on
civilians and civilian objects in Gaza, and
attacks which were disproportionate or
indiscriminate". The Israeli military declined to
comment yesterday.
Palestinian militants also fired "indiscriminate
rockets" at civilians, Amnesty said. It called
for an independent investigation into violations
of international humanitarian law by both sides.
Amnesty researchers in Gaza found several weapon
fragments after the fighting. One came from a
500lb (227kg) Mark-82 fin guided bomb, which had
markings indicating parts were made by the US
company Raytheon. They also found fragments of
US-made white phosphorus artillery shells, marked
M825 A1.
On 15 January, several white phosphorus shells
fired by the Israeli military hit the
headquarters of the UN Relief and Works Agency in
Gaza City, destroying medicine, food and aid. One
fragment found at the scene had markings
indicating it was made by the Pine Bluff Arsenal,
based in Arkansas, in October 1991.
The human rights group said the Israeli military
had used white phosphorus in densely populated
civilian areas, which it said was an
indiscriminate form of attack and a war crime.
Its researchers found white phosphorus still
burning in residential areas days after the
ceasefire.
At the scene of an Israeli attack that killed
three Palestinian paramedics and a boy in Gaza
City on 4 January, Amnesty found fragments of an
AGM114 Hellfire missile, made by Hellfire Systems
of Orlando, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin
and Boeing. The missile is often fired from
Apache helicopters.
Amnesty said it also found evidence of a new type
of missile, apparently fired from unmanned
drones, which exploded into many pieces of
shrapnel that were "tiny sharp-edged metal cubes,
each between 2 and 4mm square in size".
"They appear designed to cause maximum injury,"
Amnesty said. Many civilians were killed by this
weapon, including several children, it said.
Rockets fired by Palestinian militants were
either 122mm Grad missiles or short-range Qassam
rockets, a locally made, improvised artillery
weapon. Warheads were either smuggled in or made
from fertiliser.
The arsenal of weapons was on a "very small scale
compared to Israel", it said, adding that the
scale of rocket arsenal deployed by Hizbullah in
the 2006 Lebanese war was "beyond the reach of
Palestinian militant groups".
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