Demands grow for Gaza war crimes investigation
Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
The Guardian, Tuesday 13 January 2009
Israel is facing growing demands from senior UN officials and human rights
groups for an international war crimes investigation in Gaza over allegations
such as the "reckless and indiscriminate" shelling of residential areas and use
of Palestinian families as human shields by soldiers.
With the death toll from the 17-day Israeli assault on Gaza climbing above 900,
pressure is increasing for an independent inquiry into specific incidents, such
as the shelling of a UN school turned refugee centre where about 40 people
died, as well as the question of whether the military tactics used by Israel
systematically breached humanitarian law.
The UN's senior human rights body approved a resolution yesterday condemning
the Israeli offensive for "massive violations of human rights". A senior UN
source said the body's humanitarian agencies were compiling evidence of war
crimes and passing it on to the "highest levels" to be used as seen fit.
Some human rights activists allege that the Israeli leadership gave an order to
keep military casualties low no matter what cost to civilians. That strategy
has directly contributed to one of the bloodiest Israeli assaults on the
Palestinian territories, they say.
John Ging, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza, said: "It's about
accountability [over] the issue of the appropriateness of the force used, the
proportionality of the force used and the whole issue of duty of care of
civilians.
"We don't want to join any chorus of passing judgment but there should be an
investigation of any and every incident where there are concerns there might
have been violations in international law."
The Israeli military are accused of:
Using powerful shells in civilian areas which the army knew would cause large
numbers of innocent casualties;
Using banned weapons such as phosphorus bombs;
Holding Palestinian families as human shields;
Attacking medical facilities, including the killing of 12 ambulance men in
marked vehicles;
Killing large numbers of police who had no military role.
Israeli military actions prompted an unusual public rebuke from the
International Red Cross after the army moved a Palestinian family into a
building and shelled it, killing 30. The surviving children clung to the bodies
of their dead mothers for four days while the army blocked rescuers from
reaching the wounded.
Human Rights Watch has called on the UN security council to set up a commission
of inquiry into alleged war crimes.
Two leading Israeli human rights organisations have separately written to the
country's attorney general demanding he investigate the allegations.
But critics remain sceptical that any such inquiry will take place, given that
Israel has previously blocked similar attempts with the backing of the US.
Amnesty International says hitting residential streets with shells that send
blast and shrapnel over a wide area constitutes "prima facie evidence of war
crimes".
"There has been reckless and disproportionate and in some cases indiscriminate
use of force," said Donatella Rovera, an Amnesty investigator in Israel. "There
has been the use of weaponry that shouldn't be used in densely populated areas
because it's known that it will cause civilian fatalities and casualties.
"They have extremely sophisticated missiles that can be guided to a moving car
and they choose to use other weapons or decide to drop a bomb on a house
knowing that there were women and children inside. These are very, very clear
breaches of international law."
Israel's most prominent human rights organisation, B'Tselem, has written to the
attorney general in Jerusalem, Meni Mazuz, asking him to investigate suspected
crimes including how the military selects its targets and the killing of scores
of policemen at a passing out parade.
"Many of the targets seem not to have been legitimate military targets as
specified by international humanitarian law," said Sarit Michaeli of B'Tselem.
Rovera has also collected evidence that the Israeli army holds Palestinian
families prisoner in their own homes as human shields. "It's standard practice
for Israeli soldiers to go into a house, lock up the family in a room on the
ground floor and use the rest of the house as a military base, as a sniper's
position. That is the absolute textbook case of human shields.
"It has been practised by the Israeli army for many years and they are doing it
again in Gaza now," she said.
While there are growing calls for an international investigation, the form it
would take is less clear. The UN's human rights council has the authority to
investigate allegations of war crimes but Israel has blocked its previous
attempts to do so. The UN security council could order an investigation, and
even set up a war crimes tribunal, but that is likely to be vetoed by the US
and probably Britain.
The international criminal court has no jurisdiction because Israel is not a
signatory. The UN security council could refer the matter to the court but is
unlikely to.
Benjamin Rutland, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said an international
investigation of the army's actions was not justified. "We have international
lawyers at every level of the command whose job it is to authorise targeting
decisions, rules of engagement ... We don't think we have breached
international law in any of these instances," he said.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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