[News] New Amnesty International Report: Israel 'deliberately and wantonly' targeted residential towers

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  New Amnesty International Report: Israel 'deliberately and wantonly'
  targeted residential towers

author Tuesday December 09, 2014 10:09author by Celine Hagbard
*http://www.imemc.org/article/69949*

    A new report from the international human rights group Amnesty
    International found that Israeli forces deliberately targeted
    multi-story apartment buildings in Gaza during the latter part of
    its invasion this past summer, in actions that amount to war crimes.

"All the evidence we have shows this large-scale destruction was carried 
out deliberately and with no military justification," said Philip 
Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at 
Amnesty International.

"Both the facts on the ground and statements made by Israeli military 
spokespeople at the time indicate that the attacks were a collective 
punishment against the people of Gaza and were designed to destroy their 
already precarious livelihoods."

The Israeli air strikes on residential apartment towers increased in the 
last part of the invasion, during August, in the last four days of the 
invasion.
According to the Amnesty report, while the Israeli military warned the 
residents of the buildings to leave before they destroyed them, scores 
of people from nearby buildings were injured and hundreds of people lost 
their homes, businesses and belongings in the air strikes that leveled 
the skyscrapers.

In all four cases, panicked residents hurried to evacuate the buildings 
and in most cases, were unable to salvage their belongings, including 
important documents, jewelry and savings.

The Municipal Commercial Centre in Rafah, which contained a shopping 
mall, a garage, several offices and a medical clinic, was reduced to a 
tangled skeleton of iron girders and concrete. Businesses in this 
building provided the livelihoods for hundreds of families, who are now 
struggling to make ends meet.

Other than the suggestion that one of the destroyed buildings housed a 
Hamas command centre and of "facilities linked to Palestinian militants" 
in another, the Israeli authorities have provided no information as to 
why they levelled four entire buildings.

"Even if the Israeli authorities had good reason to believe that a part 
of a building was being used for military purposes, they had an 
obligation to choose means and methods of attack that would minimize 
harm to civilians and their property," says Philip Luther. "The Israeli 
army have previously conducted air strikes on specific apartments in 
high-rise buildings without their complete destruction."

Amnesty International sent its findings about the air strikes to the 
Israeli authorities and asked for explanations on why each of the 
attacks was carried out; what or who was being targeted; what 
precautions were taken to minimize the risk of harm to civilians; and 
whether any investigation had taken place or was ongoing.

Amnesty International is calling for the Commission of Inquiry set up 
the United Nations to be allowed to conduct its investigation without 
hindrance, and for the Israeli authorities to lift their block on 
Amnesty International and other human rights organizations entering Gaza.

"War crimes must be independently and impartially investigated and those 
responsible should be brought to justice in fair trials. Those whose 
homes and livelihoods have been unlawfully destroyed deserve justice and 
full reparation," said Philip Luther.


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Related Link(s): 
http://amnesty.org/en/news/israels-destruction-multisto...12-09 
<http://amnesty.org/en/news/israels-destruction-multistorey-buildings-extensive-wanton-and-unjustified-2014-12-09>
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