HRW claims Gaza rockets were war crimes against Israel

Submitted by fgadf3232 on Tue, 2012-12-25 13:53

In a report issued Monday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch accused armed Palestinian groups in Gaza of violating the laws of war during November 2012 by firing rockets into population areas in Israel.

"Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statements that harming civilians was their aim," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East Director for Human Rights Watch (HRW).

HRW also revealed that the rocket attacks, including the first from Gaza to strike Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas, killed three Israeli civilians, wounded at least 38, several seriously, and destroyed civilian property.

Rockets that fell short of their intended targets in Israel apparently killed at least two Palestinians in Gaza and wounded others.

It is worth mentioning that Israeli army has claimed that more than 1,500 rockets were fired at Israel between Nov. 14 and 21, 800 of which struck Israel, including 60 that hit populated areas.

On the other hand, the Palestinian resistance factions claims that the 1,300 rockets and mortar it fired were in response to Israel's aggression on Gaza, which violated international and human rights laws by targeting civilians and civilian structures in the Gaza Strip.

Whitson, however, rejected claims by the Palestinian resistance factions that their targeting of Israeli civilians was legitimate.

"There is simply no legal justification for launching rockets at populated areas," she said.

In addition, HRW claimed its research in Gaza found that the armed factions repeatedly fired rockets from within densely populated areas, near homes, businesses and a hotel, unnecessarily placing civilians in the vicinity at grave risk from Israeli counter-fire.

In separate a reports, HRW said that Israel's attacks on journalists and media facilities, which killed two cameramen, wounded 10 employees of media organizations and caused serious damage to media outlets and the buildings housing, also violated the laws of war.

“Just because Israel says a journalist was a fighter or a TV station was a command center, does not make them legitimate targets under the laws of war,” said Whitson.

Opinion:

It seems to the Palestinian people that HRW is living on another planet and that they have written this report with an Israeli pen. There is no neutrality in this report at all as they neglected to state that during the eight-day Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, 156 Palestinians, including 103 civilians were killed by Israeli forces, including 33 children, 13 women and three journalists.

Moreover, 971 civilians were wounded, including 247 children, 162 women and 12 journalists. Israeli forces carried out 1,350 airstrikes in which 1,400 missiles were launched. Fifty-five houses were completely destroyed, while hundreds of others sustained partial to severe damage.

In addition, two mosques were completely destroyed while another 34 sustained partial or complete damage. Eight governmental establishments, 13 security offices and police stations and two bridges connecting the central Gaza Strip with the northern Gaza Strip were destroyed. Six media offices, six health institutions, 28 educational institutions and 22 civil and charity associations were targeted.

Please note that these details are from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which is also powered and supported by HRW.

At the same time, the report stated three Israelis were killed, but did not mention that an Israeli F16 airstrike killed 21 Palestinians from the Al-Dalo family in the Jabaliya refugee camp. The house of Al-Dalo was bombed and the victims died under the rubble. This is just one example, but on the ground this scenario was repeated with several families.

As for the report claiming that the Palestinians deliberately hit Israeli civilians, this in response to Israel's targeting civilians in Gaza. The Palestinian factions had a clear message that if Israel targets one house, they will target 10 houses in return. Through the experience of Palestinians in dealing with Israelis they have discovered that this is the only language they understand. Therefore, after targeting houses in Tel Aviv, Israel started to target only empty land.

I think that HRW has not been fair in its report because it failed to issue a condemnation report against Israel following its aggression on Gaza in 2008-2009, when 1,400 Palestinians were killed and only one Israeli!

However, this time, despite the failure of Israel to admit any suffering and pain, the Palestinian resistance responded appropriately, making Israelis realize that war or aggression on Gaza is no longer passing without painful responses. Perhaps history will record that Israel is the one who asked for truce and not the Palestinians.

Finally, I advise anyone who writes reports on Gaza to write from there and not from an office in New y\York or London. They must come and see the reality and the facts.

At the same time, I thank all friends from Germany, America, Canada and Australia who were in Gaza supporting its people during the recent aggression. I also advise Sarah Leah Whitson to ask them who violated all types of international and human rights laws?

Certainly, they will answer with all sincerity and honesty. It was Israel.