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<h1 class="title">Israel largest state user of explosive weapons in
2014 due to Gaza war</h1>
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<div class="stamp">June 26, 2015 4:14 P.M. (Updated: June 26, 2015
11:23 P.M.) </div>
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<div class="PhotoContainer" style="width: 650px"><b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766173">http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766173</a></small></small></b><br>
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<div class="authorClass">By: Charlie Hoyle</div>
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Israel was the single largest user of explosive
weapons among international states in 2014 as a result of its war on
Gaza, a London-based NGO said this week, providing further testimony
to its devastating use of force on the coastal territory last
summer.In a <a
href="https://aoav.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/AOAV-Explosive-States-monitoring-explosive-violence-in-2014.pdf"
style="font-weight: normal;">report</a> entitled ‘Explosive
States: Monitoring explosive violence in 2014,’ Action on Armed
Violence said that Gaza -- together with Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, and
Pakistan -- saw one of the highest number of global casualties from
explosive weapons as a result of Israel’s use of military force
during Operation Protective Edge.The majority of the 2,200
Palestinian victims during the war – including 500 children -- were
killed by explosive weaponry, with 53 percent killed by aerial
weapons such as bombs, missiles or airstrikes and 47 percent by
ground or naval artillery shelling, AOAV said.Gaza accounted for a
staggering 35 percent of global fatalities from aerial explosives
and experienced the largest increase in civilian deaths from
explosive weaponry in 2014 -- in line with a five percent rise in
total casualties worldwide.Syria topped the list for aerial
explosive fatalities, accounting for 43 percent of global deaths.Israel
launched over 6,000 airstrikes and fired 50,000 artillery shells
into the densely populated coastal territory during the war,
representing a 533 percent <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=760268"
style="font-weight: normal;">increase</a> from artillery use in
Operation Cast Lead and averaging 680 shells fired into Gaza each
day of the conflict.The statistics reinforce findings from the
United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza war, which on
Monday decried the "huge firepower" used in Gaza which caused
unprecedented “devastation and human suffering.”Rob Perkins, a
senior weapons researcher at AOAV, told Ma’an that Gaza experienced
the third highest number of civilian casualties from explosive
violence in 2014 – surpassed only by Iraq and Syria.“The operation
in Gaza was characterized by the use of heavy explosive weapons,
like massive aircraft bombs, or unguided artillery shell. These
weapons affect a wide area, and after the extent to which these
weapons were used in populated areas of Gaza, it is no surprise to
see it so high in the table.”
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<div style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Children
bear the brunt of explosive violence</span></div>
The 50-day conflict in Gaza killed 539 children and injured 2,956,
most of whom are now struggling with trauma and life-long
disabilities, according to the UN children's agency UNICEF.Of the 28
different countries and territories where child fatalities from
explosive weapons were reported, 40 percent were killed or injured
in Gaza, the largest proportion in any international conflict zone
ahead of Syria at 25 percent, AOAV said.Aerial explosives, such as
airstrikes, were particularly dangerous for children during the war,
with AOAV recording 166 separate incidents where children were
killed or injured by explosive weapons within their family homes.In
one such <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/2015_black_flag/a_dali_building"
style="font-weight: normal;">incident</a> on July 29, Israel’s air
force dropped a 2,000 pound aerial bomb on a three-story apartment
block in Khan Younis, killing 18 children. There were a total of 33
fatalities in the bombing, which flattened the a-Dali building.Israel’s
devastating use of force during the military operation meant that it
was the individual state actor which caused the most reported
civilian casualties from explosive weaponry in 2014, with Israeli
attacks accounting for 44 percent of all global incidents of
explosive violence.Over 84 percent of those attacks were reported in
places where civilians were concentrated, far higher than the global
average of 61 percent.“On average, AOAV recorded nine civilian
deaths and injuries per explosive weapons attack in Gaza,”
researcher Rob Perkins said.Although lower than rates in Iraq and
Syria – two countries mired in brutal, intractable civil wars –
Perkins says the high toll is suggestive of “how dangerous these
weapons are even when aimed at a specific target.”A UN inquiry found
that the Israeli military was responsible for seven attacks on UN
schools in Gaza that were used as shelters during the 2014 war.In
one incident on July 30, Israeli forces fired at least ten 155mm
artillery shells near a UNRWA school for girls in Jabaliya which had
been sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians.Dozens of people,
including children, were killed in the attack, with UNRWA <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/unrwa-strongly-condemns-israeli-shelling-its-school-gaza-serious"
style="font-weight: normal;">calling</a> it a “source of universal
shame” that “children were killed as they slept next to their
parents on the floor of a classroom in a UN designated shelter.”Perkins
says that the use of powerful, imprecise and high impact explosive
weaponry in densely populated areas means it is inevitable civilians
will be killed in the crossfire.“AOAV agrees with the UN's
Commission of Inquiry when it said that the use of artillery with
wide-area effects is not appropriate in densely-populated areas,” he
said.“Sadly this is what we saw last year in Gaza.”
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