Amnesty Int'l Condemns IDF for Reckless Disregard of Life in Gaza
Zionist Extremism Key Impediment to Peace | 04.03.2008 01:27 | Anti-militarism | World
Absent from the coverage was any mention of Zionism or Zionist Extremism. No one can claim to understand what is happening without discussing this group, and it current grip on power in Israel.
Amnesty rips IDF for 'reckless disregard of life' in Gaza
By JONNY PAUL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT - LONDON
The London-based human rights organization Amnesty International has condemned Israel's attacks on Gaza, claiming they are "being carried out with reckless disregard for civilian life."
"Israeli military attacks over the past few days have killed more than 75 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 10 children, and other unarmed civilian bystanders not involved in the confrontations" Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program, said Sunday. "Israel has a legal obligation to protect the civilian population of Gaza. Such attacks are disproportionate and go beyond lawful measures which Israeli forces may take in response to rocket attacks by Palestinian armed groups."
A statement released by the organization said: "All unlawful attacks must stop - Israeli forces must put an immediate end to disproportionate attacks and collective punishment in Gaza and Palestinian armed groups must immediately stop the barrage of rockets into southern Israel."
"It is high time that the leaders of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority took effective steps to prevent and punish attacks on civilians in Israel, but their failure to do so does not make it legitimate for the Israeli authorities to launch reckless air and artillery strikes which wreak such death and destruction among Palestinian civilians," said Smart.
(And it was Israel's imposition of Collective Punishment on Gaza, and the increase in Israeli Aggression, which provoked this response.)
In its statement, Amnesty highlighted disproportionate casualty statistics in the conflict, saying that in the last two months, close to 200 Gazans, of whom around "one-third were unarmed civilian bystanders, including 15 children" have been killed." In the same period, the statement continued, "one Israeli civilian was killed and several injured by rocket fire," the statement said.
(The Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, published a report stating that at least half of those killed were civilians.)
"We condemn all attacks on civilians, but unlawful attacks by one side cannot justify violations by the other," Smart said.
The statement said that IDF actions this week displayed a "disproportion and recklessness" that has "characterized" its operations in Palestinian territories.
At the same time, Amnesty argued, Palestinian armed groups who launched frequent rocket attacks from Gaza into nearby Israeli towns not only showed a "callous disregard" for the lives of Israeli civilians but also exposed their own population to Israeli counterattacks.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204473061572&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Rights Group: More than 50% of Gaza casualties were civilians
By Haaretz Service
Tags: Gaza Strip, B'tselem, IDF
The human rights organization B'Tselem on Monday said in a statement that more than half of the Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip in Israel Defense Forces operations in recent days did not take an active part in the fighting. This statement came after the IDF Chief of Staff issued a statement saying that 90 percent of those killed were in fact armed militants.
In their statement, B'Tselem outlined a string of incidents in which IDF allegedly killed innocent bystanders in the course of military operations aimed at battling the escalating rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.
According to data gathered by B'Tselem, 106 Palestinians were killed between February 27 and march 3. Fifty four of them were civilians who didn't take part in the fighting, and 25 were under 18, the statement said.
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The human rights group cites as an example an incident that occurred on Thursday, in which four children were killed and two others were wounded in an Israel Air Force strike targeting rocket launchers. The children had been playing soccer in a street east of the Jabaliya refugee camp. The organization's inquiry into the incident revealed that the Qassam launcher may have been situated 100 meters from the site of the strike, and no militants were harmed in the strike.
Another incident cited by B'Tselem is the death of a brother and sister aged 16 and 17 while they were watching the violence from the window of their home east of Jabaliya. According to witnesses, the two were shot in the head and the chest.
B'Tselem expressed concern over the high number of civilians, especially children, who have been killed recently in the Gaza Strip. "Israel has a right to defend its citizens from rockets, which are in themselves a war crime, and it is what it must do," the organization wrote. "Israel must do so within the confines of the law, which must conform to the criteria of differentiation and proportionality as defined by international humanitarian law."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/960338.html
Joint Statement Against the Israeli Airstrikes on the Gaza Strip
http://www.alternativenews.org/news/english/joint-statement-against-the-israeli-airstrikes-on-the-gaza-strip-20080301.html
U.N. Chief Condemns Israel After Bloody Day in Gaza
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/03/392791.html
By JONNY PAUL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT - LONDON
The London-based human rights organization Amnesty International has condemned Israel's attacks on Gaza, claiming they are "being carried out with reckless disregard for civilian life."
"Israeli military attacks over the past few days have killed more than 75 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 10 children, and other unarmed civilian bystanders not involved in the confrontations" Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program, said Sunday. "Israel has a legal obligation to protect the civilian population of Gaza. Such attacks are disproportionate and go beyond lawful measures which Israeli forces may take in response to rocket attacks by Palestinian armed groups."
A statement released by the organization said: "All unlawful attacks must stop - Israeli forces must put an immediate end to disproportionate attacks and collective punishment in Gaza and Palestinian armed groups must immediately stop the barrage of rockets into southern Israel."
"It is high time that the leaders of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority took effective steps to prevent and punish attacks on civilians in Israel, but their failure to do so does not make it legitimate for the Israeli authorities to launch reckless air and artillery strikes which wreak such death and destruction among Palestinian civilians," said Smart.
(And it was Israel's imposition of Collective Punishment on Gaza, and the increase in Israeli Aggression, which provoked this response.)
In its statement, Amnesty highlighted disproportionate casualty statistics in the conflict, saying that in the last two months, close to 200 Gazans, of whom around "one-third were unarmed civilian bystanders, including 15 children" have been killed." In the same period, the statement continued, "one Israeli civilian was killed and several injured by rocket fire," the statement said.
(The Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, published a report stating that at least half of those killed were civilians.)
"We condemn all attacks on civilians, but unlawful attacks by one side cannot justify violations by the other," Smart said.
The statement said that IDF actions this week displayed a "disproportion and recklessness" that has "characterized" its operations in Palestinian territories.
At the same time, Amnesty argued, Palestinian armed groups who launched frequent rocket attacks from Gaza into nearby Israeli towns not only showed a "callous disregard" for the lives of Israeli civilians but also exposed their own population to Israeli counterattacks.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204473061572&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Rights Group: More than 50% of Gaza casualties were civilians
By Haaretz Service
Tags: Gaza Strip, B'tselem, IDF
The human rights organization B'Tselem on Monday said in a statement that more than half of the Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip in Israel Defense Forces operations in recent days did not take an active part in the fighting. This statement came after the IDF Chief of Staff issued a statement saying that 90 percent of those killed were in fact armed militants.
In their statement, B'Tselem outlined a string of incidents in which IDF allegedly killed innocent bystanders in the course of military operations aimed at battling the escalating rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.
According to data gathered by B'Tselem, 106 Palestinians were killed between February 27 and march 3. Fifty four of them were civilians who didn't take part in the fighting, and 25 were under 18, the statement said.
Advertisement
The human rights group cites as an example an incident that occurred on Thursday, in which four children were killed and two others were wounded in an Israel Air Force strike targeting rocket launchers. The children had been playing soccer in a street east of the Jabaliya refugee camp. The organization's inquiry into the incident revealed that the Qassam launcher may have been situated 100 meters from the site of the strike, and no militants were harmed in the strike.
Another incident cited by B'Tselem is the death of a brother and sister aged 16 and 17 while they were watching the violence from the window of their home east of Jabaliya. According to witnesses, the two were shot in the head and the chest.
B'Tselem expressed concern over the high number of civilians, especially children, who have been killed recently in the Gaza Strip. "Israel has a right to defend its citizens from rockets, which are in themselves a war crime, and it is what it must do," the organization wrote. "Israel must do so within the confines of the law, which must conform to the criteria of differentiation and proportionality as defined by international humanitarian law."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/960338.html Joint Statement Against the Israeli Airstrikes on the Gaza Strip
http://www.alternativenews.org/news/english/joint-statement-against-the-israeli-airstrikes-on-the-gaza-strip-20080301.html U.N. Chief Condemns Israel After Bloody Day in Gaza
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/03/392791.html
Zionist Extremism Key Impediment to Peace
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