30 july 2015
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Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCIP) participated in a congressional briefing in Washington on Wednesday, urging lawmakers to investigate and hold Israeli forces accountable for using American-supplied weapons in attacks against Palestinian children last summer.
The July 29 briefing on Capitol Hill drew around 70 attendees, including staff from at least 20 different congressional offices. Josh Ruebner, policy director at the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, gave opening remarks and Eman Mohammed, a Gaza-based photojournalist, provided testimony on what life was like on the ground during the 50-day Israeli military assault on Gaza one year ago. Speakers from Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah) and DCIP highlighted specific violations of international |
humanitarian law during the military offensive and discussed the failure of Israel to hold itself accountable for its actions.
Despite well-documented evidence of war crimes committed by the Israeli military during the assault on Gaza, Brad Parker, international advocacy officer and attorney at DCIP, said there has been no accountability for grave violations against Palestinian children.
“DCIP's investigation into all Palestinian child deaths during Israel's military assault on Gaza last summer found overwhelming and repeated evidence that Israeli forces committed grave violations against children that amount to war crimes,” said Parker. “In order to end impunity and increase protections for children, the U.S. government must take concrete action to ensure that American-supplied weapons are not used to commit violations of international law.”
Nadia Ben-Youssef, an attorney and U.S. representative for Adalah, detailed the flaws in Israel’s domestic investigatory proceedings and deliberate obstacles Palestinians from Gaza face when trying to access justice and seek redress.
“As a Palestinian legal center based in Israel, we have continued to engage with Israel's domestic investigatory mechanisms in pursuit of accountability for the victims of last year's massive Israeli military assault in Gaza,” said Ben-Youssef. “Any alleged improvements by Israel to its internal military investigations are illusory, and the military continues to grant itself complete impunity for war crimes.”
Operation Protective Edge, which lasted 50 days between July 8 and August 26, claimed the lives of 2,220 Palestinians, including at least 1,492 civilians, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
DCIP independently verified the deaths of 547 Palestinian children among the killed in Gaza, 535 of them as a direct result of Israeli attacks. Nearly 68 percent of the children killed by Israeli forces were 12 years old or younger. Not a single perpetrator has been held accountable for any of the deaths.
In early June, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon shielded Israel from accountability for atrocities against children when he removed Israel’s armed forces from a draft list of groups that commit grave violations of children’s rights during armed conflict.
An independent United Nations commission presented a report to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on June 29 that detailed international law violations committed by both Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza during the conflict.
The UNHRC endorsed the report in a resolution passed by a 41 to one vote on July 3. The resolution expressed alarm “that long-standing systemic impunity” has allowed for repeated violations of international law without consequence. The resolution reaffirmed “the need to ensure accountability” to end impunity. All eight European Union member states of the UNHRC, including Germany, the United Kingdom, and France, voted in favor of the resolution. The U.S. was the only member to vote against the resolution.
The briefing was sponsored by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, and cosponsored by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, American Friends Service Committee, American Muslims for Palestine, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Jewish Voice for Peace, Just World Books, Middle East Children's Alliance, United Methodist Kairos Response, and the U.S. Palestinian Community Network.
Despite well-documented evidence of war crimes committed by the Israeli military during the assault on Gaza, Brad Parker, international advocacy officer and attorney at DCIP, said there has been no accountability for grave violations against Palestinian children.
“DCIP's investigation into all Palestinian child deaths during Israel's military assault on Gaza last summer found overwhelming and repeated evidence that Israeli forces committed grave violations against children that amount to war crimes,” said Parker. “In order to end impunity and increase protections for children, the U.S. government must take concrete action to ensure that American-supplied weapons are not used to commit violations of international law.”
Nadia Ben-Youssef, an attorney and U.S. representative for Adalah, detailed the flaws in Israel’s domestic investigatory proceedings and deliberate obstacles Palestinians from Gaza face when trying to access justice and seek redress.
“As a Palestinian legal center based in Israel, we have continued to engage with Israel's domestic investigatory mechanisms in pursuit of accountability for the victims of last year's massive Israeli military assault in Gaza,” said Ben-Youssef. “Any alleged improvements by Israel to its internal military investigations are illusory, and the military continues to grant itself complete impunity for war crimes.”
Operation Protective Edge, which lasted 50 days between July 8 and August 26, claimed the lives of 2,220 Palestinians, including at least 1,492 civilians, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
DCIP independently verified the deaths of 547 Palestinian children among the killed in Gaza, 535 of them as a direct result of Israeli attacks. Nearly 68 percent of the children killed by Israeli forces were 12 years old or younger. Not a single perpetrator has been held accountable for any of the deaths.
In early June, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon shielded Israel from accountability for atrocities against children when he removed Israel’s armed forces from a draft list of groups that commit grave violations of children’s rights during armed conflict.
An independent United Nations commission presented a report to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on June 29 that detailed international law violations committed by both Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza during the conflict.
The UNHRC endorsed the report in a resolution passed by a 41 to one vote on July 3. The resolution expressed alarm “that long-standing systemic impunity” has allowed for repeated violations of international law without consequence. The resolution reaffirmed “the need to ensure accountability” to end impunity. All eight European Union member states of the UNHRC, including Germany, the United Kingdom, and France, voted in favor of the resolution. The U.S. was the only member to vote against the resolution.
The briefing was sponsored by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, and cosponsored by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, American Friends Service Committee, American Muslims for Palestine, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Jewish Voice for Peace, Just World Books, Middle East Children's Alliance, United Methodist Kairos Response, and the U.S. Palestinian Community Network.
Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, slammed the United States of America for supplying Israel with stealth aircraft.
Hamas’s spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said, in a press statement on Thursday, the American supply of stealth aircraft to the Israeli occupation is a shameful action considered as actual participation in Israeli war crimes committed against the Palestinians people.
Barhoum considered the action an official support of the Israeli terrorism especially after the amnesty international report which confirmed that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza on “Black Friday” when Israel targeted ambulances and deliberately killed people most of whom kids in streets and houses by American-made war aircraft.
Hamas’s spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said, in a press statement on Thursday, the American supply of stealth aircraft to the Israeli occupation is a shameful action considered as actual participation in Israeli war crimes committed against the Palestinians people.
Barhoum considered the action an official support of the Israeli terrorism especially after the amnesty international report which confirmed that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza on “Black Friday” when Israel targeted ambulances and deliberately killed people most of whom kids in streets and houses by American-made war aircraft.
Amnesty International: 'Strong evidence' that Israel committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. 'Nobody can claim that they don't know what happened on Friday the 1st of August. We are closer now to justice than we were before.'
Israeli troops committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during and after 'Black Friday' on 1 August in last year's Gaza war, according to a report released Wednesday by Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture.
In Rafah between the 1st and 4th of August 2014, Israeli forces killed at least 135 Palestinian civilians, including 75 children, in their search for captured Israeli soldier, Lieutenant Hadar Goldin. A ceasefire had been called shortly before his capture on 1 August, leading many Palestinian civilians to believe it was safe to return to their homes. The intense attacks subsequently faced by local residents were unexpected and likened by one eyewitness to 'a machi,e making mincemeat out of people without mercy'.
The online report uses detailed eyewitness testimonials as well as cutting edge techniques from Forensic Architecture, a research team based at Goldsmiths, University of London. Forensic Architecture used photos, videos and satellite imagery in order to piece together the chronology of events. Studying shadows and smoke plumes enabled the researchers to determine the time and location of an attack, supported by eyewitness accounts, videos and photos from social media. Eyal Weizman, director of Forensic Architecture, says this report enables Israel's military narrative to be countered by a 'much more powerful narrative from people on the ground'.
The Israeli military search for Lieutenant Goldin led to a disproportionate offensive against local Palestinians and the implementation of the 'Hannibal Directive'. Amnesty International reports that under this directive, Israeli forces are permitted to respond to the capture of a soldier with 'intense firepower'. This led to a 'gloves off' policy of indiscriminate killing of civilians and attacks against hospitals, schools and ambulances. Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International, stated that 'the obligation to take precautions to avoid the loss of civilian lives was completely neglected'.
Statements from Israeli army commanders and soldiers made to the Givati Brigade inquiry and the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence indicate that the large number of civilians killed may have been a collective punishment for the population of Rafah for the capture of an Israeli soldier. Furthermore, this violent reaction continued even after the body of Lieutenant Goldin had been located.
Many of these attacks have been found to seriously violate international law and constituted breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention. If these violations were part of a systematic attack on civilians in Rafah, directed by state policy, they may also constitute crimes against humanity.
Deborah Hyams, from Amnesty International, stated that there was 'a role for the ICC' in this investigation and that she hoped 'this evidence would be considered by the office of the prosecutor'. The report strongly recommends that the Israeli authorities should reform their own investigations system so that it meets international standards while also revising their methods and tactics of fighting in densely populated areas such as Gaza.
Saleh Hijazi, a researcher for Amnesty International, said: 'Nobody can claim that they don't know what happened on Friday the 1st of August. We are closer now to justice than we were before.'
Hamas calls for legal action against Israel following Amnesty's report
The Hamas Movement has called for swiftly submitting all evidence reports on Israel's commission of war crimes against the Palestinians to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
"Amnesty International's condemnation of Israel over committing war crimes in Rafah during the 2014 war, targeting civilians, carrying out vengeful operations in Gaza and bombing ambulances during evacuation of wounded people entails quick moves to provide the international court with conclusive evidence in this regard," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum stated in a press release on Wednesday.
Barhoum called for immediately taking all procedures necessary for the prosecution of Israeli leaders over the crimes they had committed against the Palestinians in order to protect them against further violations.
Israeli troops committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during and after 'Black Friday' on 1 August in last year's Gaza war, according to a report released Wednesday by Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture.
In Rafah between the 1st and 4th of August 2014, Israeli forces killed at least 135 Palestinian civilians, including 75 children, in their search for captured Israeli soldier, Lieutenant Hadar Goldin. A ceasefire had been called shortly before his capture on 1 August, leading many Palestinian civilians to believe it was safe to return to their homes. The intense attacks subsequently faced by local residents were unexpected and likened by one eyewitness to 'a machi,e making mincemeat out of people without mercy'.
The online report uses detailed eyewitness testimonials as well as cutting edge techniques from Forensic Architecture, a research team based at Goldsmiths, University of London. Forensic Architecture used photos, videos and satellite imagery in order to piece together the chronology of events. Studying shadows and smoke plumes enabled the researchers to determine the time and location of an attack, supported by eyewitness accounts, videos and photos from social media. Eyal Weizman, director of Forensic Architecture, says this report enables Israel's military narrative to be countered by a 'much more powerful narrative from people on the ground'.
The Israeli military search for Lieutenant Goldin led to a disproportionate offensive against local Palestinians and the implementation of the 'Hannibal Directive'. Amnesty International reports that under this directive, Israeli forces are permitted to respond to the capture of a soldier with 'intense firepower'. This led to a 'gloves off' policy of indiscriminate killing of civilians and attacks against hospitals, schools and ambulances. Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International, stated that 'the obligation to take precautions to avoid the loss of civilian lives was completely neglected'.
Statements from Israeli army commanders and soldiers made to the Givati Brigade inquiry and the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence indicate that the large number of civilians killed may have been a collective punishment for the population of Rafah for the capture of an Israeli soldier. Furthermore, this violent reaction continued even after the body of Lieutenant Goldin had been located.
Many of these attacks have been found to seriously violate international law and constituted breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention. If these violations were part of a systematic attack on civilians in Rafah, directed by state policy, they may also constitute crimes against humanity.
Deborah Hyams, from Amnesty International, stated that there was 'a role for the ICC' in this investigation and that she hoped 'this evidence would be considered by the office of the prosecutor'. The report strongly recommends that the Israeli authorities should reform their own investigations system so that it meets international standards while also revising their methods and tactics of fighting in densely populated areas such as Gaza.
Saleh Hijazi, a researcher for Amnesty International, said: 'Nobody can claim that they don't know what happened on Friday the 1st of August. We are closer now to justice than we were before.'
Hamas calls for legal action against Israel following Amnesty's report
The Hamas Movement has called for swiftly submitting all evidence reports on Israel's commission of war crimes against the Palestinians to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
"Amnesty International's condemnation of Israel over committing war crimes in Rafah during the 2014 war, targeting civilians, carrying out vengeful operations in Gaza and bombing ambulances during evacuation of wounded people entails quick moves to provide the international court with conclusive evidence in this regard," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum stated in a press release on Wednesday.
Barhoum called for immediately taking all procedures necessary for the prosecution of Israeli leaders over the crimes they had committed against the Palestinians in order to protect them against further violations.
29 july 2015
Rights group calls for
prosecutions for the IDF's severe military response to the capture
of soldier Hadar Goldin during Operation Protective Edge.
An analysis of an Israeli assault in the Gaza Strip following the capture of one of its soldiers during last year's war in the Palestinian territory shows "strong evidence" of war crimes, Amnesty International said Wednesday.
The London-based rights group called for those responsible for the alleged offenses to be prosecuted as it published a detailed analysis of the Israeli military operation using eyewitness accounts, satellite imagery, photos and videos.
"There is strong evidence that Israeli forces committed war crimes in their relentless and massive bombardment of residential areas of Rafah in order to foil the capture of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, displaying a shocking disregard for civilian lives," Philip Luther, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Amnesty International, said in a statement.
"They carried out a series of disproportionate or otherwise indiscriminate attacks, which they have completely failed to investigate independently." Israel strongly denied the accusations, calling Amnesty's report "fundamentally flawed in its methodologies, in its facts, in its legal analysis and in its conclusions."
"When one reads the report, the impression is given that the (Israeli military) was fighting against itself - as there is almost no mention of the military actions of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The incidents addressed in the report centered on August 1, 2014, which has become known as "Black Friday," when Goldin was captured shortly after a ceasefire was announced. He was later declared dead. In response, the military was said to have implemented the so-called Hannibal Directive - a controversial procedure which allows for an intensive military response to prevent the capture of the soldier at all costs.
Israel bombed the city of Rafah and the surrounding area in the southern Gaza Strip near the border with Egypt. According to Amnesty, at least 135 civilians were killed in the air and ground assault.
"Massive and prolonged bombardment began without warning while masses of people were on the streets, and many of them, especially those in vehicles, became targets," Amnesty said.
"Eyewitness accounts described horrifying scenes of chaos and panic as an inferno of fire from F-16 jets, drones, helicopters and artillery rained down on the streets, striking civilians on foot or in cars, as well as ambulances and other vehicles evacuating the wounded." Amnesty partnered with researchers from Forensic Architecture, based at Goldsmiths, University of London, for the report.
Israel accused Amnesty of "a false narrative - claiming that four days of military operations by the IDF were in direct response to the killing and kidnapping of one IDF soldier," the foreign ministry said. "It seems that Amnesty forgot that there was an ongoing conflict - during which the IDF was operating to stop rocket fire and neutralize cross-border assault tunnels, and Palestinian terrorist organizations were actively engaging in intensive conflict against the IDF from within the civilian environment."
Last summer's 50-day war took a heavy toll on Gaza, killing over 2,000 Palestinians, including more than 500 children. Seventy-three people were killed on the Israeli side, including 67 soldiers.
Amnesty's new report takes soldiers' quotes out of context (updated)
Amnesty International today is releasing yet another report that tries to prove Israel committed war crimes in last year's Gaza war, this time regarding the events surrounding the kidnapping of Lt. Hadar Goldin in Rafah - who was abducted during a ceasefire.
Just like the Gaza Platform, the upcoming report uses the services of the anti-Zionist "Forensics Architecture" team to take one-sided evidence and twist it to make it look like an impartial investigation.
At the moment, only the executive summary is available. Yet even its use of sources proves its bias.
It quotes two IDF soldiers who were interviewed by "Breaking the Silence" to prove purposeful Israeli fire into civilian areas.
An Israeli infantry officer described to Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence the events that
ensued after the Hannibal Directive was announced on the radio:
“The minute ‘Hannibal Directive’ is declared on the radio, there are consequences. There’s a fire procedure called the ‘Hannibal fire procedure’ – you fire at every suspicious place that merges with a central route. You don’t spare any means.” Here's the entire testimony:
So I heard that the reconnaissance platoon got into a confrontation, and that it looked like we were talking about two [IDF soldiers] dead and one captured. That’s when the mess got started. The minute ‘Hannibal Directive’ is declared on the radio, there are consequences. There’s a fire procedure called the ‘Hannibal fire procedure’ – you fire at every suspicious place that merges with a central route. You don’t spare any means. A thousand shells were fired that Friday morning, at all the central intersections. The entire Tancher [Route] (the continuation of Highway 4 in Gaza) was bombed. The air force attacked places inside Rafah City, places in which we knew there were Hamas militants. Was there collateral damage to houses? I’m sure there was. It was very intense, that incident. After the area was hit by 1,000 shells that Friday morning, I saw Tancher in ruins. Everything totally wrecked. Even the BtS soldier says that there was no intent to hurt civilians and that no civilian structures were directly targeted..
Here's Amnesty's second quote:
An artillery soldier said his battery was “firing at a maximum fire rate” right into inhabited areas.
The full testimony:
During occasions when there was a significant amount of fire [directed at our forces], or during the ground incursion to Gaza – to Shuja’iyya – I know my unit fired a lot. One of the senior officers in my unit talked about how we had fired [at targets] that were in very close proximity to our forces, how we had really saved them. He said it was an important mission and that apparently during it we had also killed a number of civilians. They said that tragically, some uninvolved civilians were apparently hit, but that it was a situation where it would either be our troops or civilians [being harmed]. He said that it wasn’t even a question, that it was obvious that our troops [came first]. They emphasized the fact that that was obviously not done on purpose.
Did he say what the mission itself was, what the role of the [artillery] battery was? To assist them with artillery fire. If they need flare shells, or if they need smoke to conceal themselves, or, of course, if they need explosive shells to evacuate [forces from the field]. The battery fired 900 shells [that night], and the battalion fired about 1,200 or 1,500, I think. There were certain stages during which we were firing at a maximum fire rate – after Goldin was kidnapped, (an IDF soldier captured near Rafah) and in Shuja’iyya. Keep in mind that breaking the Silence itself cherry picks IDF soldiers' testimonies already to make the IDF look as bad as possible. Amnesty is further taking the BtS quotes out of context as evidence of war crimes.
It is not a war crime, or a violation of international law, to prioritize soldier's lives higher than unintended civilian casualties. On the contrary - it is what a normal military commander is supposed to do in every army on Earth. But Amnesty does not like to tel its readers what actual international law is.
Other quotes that Amnesty supposedly claims as evidence of "war crimes" are not directly quoted in the executive summary - we just have to trust Amnesty that these quotes exist and mean what they claim they mean:
Public statements by Israeli army commanders and soldiers after the conflict provide compelling reasons to conclude that some attacks that killed civilians and destroyed homes and property were intentionally carried out and motivated by a desire for revenge – to teach a lesson to, or punish, the population of Rafah for the capture of Lieutenant Goldin.
There is consequently strong evidence that many such attacks in Rafah between 1 and 4 August were serious violations of international humanitarian law and constituted grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention or other war crimes. If they have quotes like that, why not use them in this summary? Because the quotes are not nearly as clear-cut as Amnesty wants the world to believe, and they know that reporters will trust their analysis of the quotes rather than evaluate them directly.
Interestingly, the executive summary doesn't mention the number of civilians killed in this operation. BtS said "between 41-150 Palestinians were killed, many of them civilians." That is a very imprecise number. It will be interesting to see if the Forensics Architecture team, supposedly committed to unbiased research, bothered during the past year to determine exactly how many civilians were actually killed during these three days of unbridled firepower in an urban battlefield where Hamas is purposefully hiding among civilians.
Civilians were killed in Rafah. It was tragic. Amnesty wants the world to believe that it was deliberate and they are willing to spend lots of money and effort to twist the truth to reach their pre-determined conclusions.
UPDATE: The final report does not contain a single quote that indicates that IDF soldiers intended to "take revenge." The only quote from a soldier that mentions "revenge" says the exact opposite: '“Anyone who abducts should know that he will pay a price. This was not revenge. "
Amnesty is lying.
An analysis of an Israeli assault in the Gaza Strip following the capture of one of its soldiers during last year's war in the Palestinian territory shows "strong evidence" of war crimes, Amnesty International said Wednesday.
The London-based rights group called for those responsible for the alleged offenses to be prosecuted as it published a detailed analysis of the Israeli military operation using eyewitness accounts, satellite imagery, photos and videos.
"There is strong evidence that Israeli forces committed war crimes in their relentless and massive bombardment of residential areas of Rafah in order to foil the capture of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, displaying a shocking disregard for civilian lives," Philip Luther, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Amnesty International, said in a statement.
"They carried out a series of disproportionate or otherwise indiscriminate attacks, which they have completely failed to investigate independently." Israel strongly denied the accusations, calling Amnesty's report "fundamentally flawed in its methodologies, in its facts, in its legal analysis and in its conclusions."
"When one reads the report, the impression is given that the (Israeli military) was fighting against itself - as there is almost no mention of the military actions of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The incidents addressed in the report centered on August 1, 2014, which has become known as "Black Friday," when Goldin was captured shortly after a ceasefire was announced. He was later declared dead. In response, the military was said to have implemented the so-called Hannibal Directive - a controversial procedure which allows for an intensive military response to prevent the capture of the soldier at all costs.
Israel bombed the city of Rafah and the surrounding area in the southern Gaza Strip near the border with Egypt. According to Amnesty, at least 135 civilians were killed in the air and ground assault.
"Massive and prolonged bombardment began without warning while masses of people were on the streets, and many of them, especially those in vehicles, became targets," Amnesty said.
"Eyewitness accounts described horrifying scenes of chaos and panic as an inferno of fire from F-16 jets, drones, helicopters and artillery rained down on the streets, striking civilians on foot or in cars, as well as ambulances and other vehicles evacuating the wounded." Amnesty partnered with researchers from Forensic Architecture, based at Goldsmiths, University of London, for the report.
Israel accused Amnesty of "a false narrative - claiming that four days of military operations by the IDF were in direct response to the killing and kidnapping of one IDF soldier," the foreign ministry said. "It seems that Amnesty forgot that there was an ongoing conflict - during which the IDF was operating to stop rocket fire and neutralize cross-border assault tunnels, and Palestinian terrorist organizations were actively engaging in intensive conflict against the IDF from within the civilian environment."
Last summer's 50-day war took a heavy toll on Gaza, killing over 2,000 Palestinians, including more than 500 children. Seventy-three people were killed on the Israeli side, including 67 soldiers.
Amnesty's new report takes soldiers' quotes out of context (updated)
Amnesty International today is releasing yet another report that tries to prove Israel committed war crimes in last year's Gaza war, this time regarding the events surrounding the kidnapping of Lt. Hadar Goldin in Rafah - who was abducted during a ceasefire.
Just like the Gaza Platform, the upcoming report uses the services of the anti-Zionist "Forensics Architecture" team to take one-sided evidence and twist it to make it look like an impartial investigation.
At the moment, only the executive summary is available. Yet even its use of sources proves its bias.
It quotes two IDF soldiers who were interviewed by "Breaking the Silence" to prove purposeful Israeli fire into civilian areas.
An Israeli infantry officer described to Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence the events that
ensued after the Hannibal Directive was announced on the radio:
“The minute ‘Hannibal Directive’ is declared on the radio, there are consequences. There’s a fire procedure called the ‘Hannibal fire procedure’ – you fire at every suspicious place that merges with a central route. You don’t spare any means.” Here's the entire testimony:
So I heard that the reconnaissance platoon got into a confrontation, and that it looked like we were talking about two [IDF soldiers] dead and one captured. That’s when the mess got started. The minute ‘Hannibal Directive’ is declared on the radio, there are consequences. There’s a fire procedure called the ‘Hannibal fire procedure’ – you fire at every suspicious place that merges with a central route. You don’t spare any means. A thousand shells were fired that Friday morning, at all the central intersections. The entire Tancher [Route] (the continuation of Highway 4 in Gaza) was bombed. The air force attacked places inside Rafah City, places in which we knew there were Hamas militants. Was there collateral damage to houses? I’m sure there was. It was very intense, that incident. After the area was hit by 1,000 shells that Friday morning, I saw Tancher in ruins. Everything totally wrecked. Even the BtS soldier says that there was no intent to hurt civilians and that no civilian structures were directly targeted..
Here's Amnesty's second quote:
An artillery soldier said his battery was “firing at a maximum fire rate” right into inhabited areas.
The full testimony:
During occasions when there was a significant amount of fire [directed at our forces], or during the ground incursion to Gaza – to Shuja’iyya – I know my unit fired a lot. One of the senior officers in my unit talked about how we had fired [at targets] that were in very close proximity to our forces, how we had really saved them. He said it was an important mission and that apparently during it we had also killed a number of civilians. They said that tragically, some uninvolved civilians were apparently hit, but that it was a situation where it would either be our troops or civilians [being harmed]. He said that it wasn’t even a question, that it was obvious that our troops [came first]. They emphasized the fact that that was obviously not done on purpose.
Did he say what the mission itself was, what the role of the [artillery] battery was? To assist them with artillery fire. If they need flare shells, or if they need smoke to conceal themselves, or, of course, if they need explosive shells to evacuate [forces from the field]. The battery fired 900 shells [that night], and the battalion fired about 1,200 or 1,500, I think. There were certain stages during which we were firing at a maximum fire rate – after Goldin was kidnapped, (an IDF soldier captured near Rafah) and in Shuja’iyya. Keep in mind that breaking the Silence itself cherry picks IDF soldiers' testimonies already to make the IDF look as bad as possible. Amnesty is further taking the BtS quotes out of context as evidence of war crimes.
It is not a war crime, or a violation of international law, to prioritize soldier's lives higher than unintended civilian casualties. On the contrary - it is what a normal military commander is supposed to do in every army on Earth. But Amnesty does not like to tel its readers what actual international law is.
Other quotes that Amnesty supposedly claims as evidence of "war crimes" are not directly quoted in the executive summary - we just have to trust Amnesty that these quotes exist and mean what they claim they mean:
Public statements by Israeli army commanders and soldiers after the conflict provide compelling reasons to conclude that some attacks that killed civilians and destroyed homes and property were intentionally carried out and motivated by a desire for revenge – to teach a lesson to, or punish, the population of Rafah for the capture of Lieutenant Goldin.
There is consequently strong evidence that many such attacks in Rafah between 1 and 4 August were serious violations of international humanitarian law and constituted grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention or other war crimes. If they have quotes like that, why not use them in this summary? Because the quotes are not nearly as clear-cut as Amnesty wants the world to believe, and they know that reporters will trust their analysis of the quotes rather than evaluate them directly.
Interestingly, the executive summary doesn't mention the number of civilians killed in this operation. BtS said "between 41-150 Palestinians were killed, many of them civilians." That is a very imprecise number. It will be interesting to see if the Forensics Architecture team, supposedly committed to unbiased research, bothered during the past year to determine exactly how many civilians were actually killed during these three days of unbridled firepower in an urban battlefield where Hamas is purposefully hiding among civilians.
Civilians were killed in Rafah. It was tragic. Amnesty wants the world to believe that it was deliberate and they are willing to spend lots of money and effort to twist the truth to reach their pre-determined conclusions.
UPDATE: The final report does not contain a single quote that indicates that IDF soldiers intended to "take revenge." The only quote from a soldier that mentions "revenge" says the exact opposite: '“Anyone who abducts should know that he will pay a price. This was not revenge. "
Amnesty is lying.
A Palestinian diplomat on Monday announced that a planned visit to Palestine later this month by a delegation from The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) would be postponed.
“The ICC has informed the Palestinian government of the postponement of the delegation’s visit – initially slated for the end of July – to next fall,” Nabil Abu Zened, Palestinian ambassador to the Netherlands, told Palestinian public radio.
The court, he added, had attributed the move to technical and procedural reasons.
World Bulletin reports, via Al Ray, that Abu Zened went on, however, to suggest the delay may have been due to Israeli pressure.
Last month, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki submitted a first batch of documentary evidence to ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, which, he said, included proof of “crimes and violations committed by Israel in the Palestinian territories.”
The evidence include files related to Palestinian political prisoners languishing in Israeli jails, illegal Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and documentary evidence of war crimes committed by Israel during last year’s military onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
In the summer of last year, Israel carried out a weeks-long offensive against the blockaded Gaza Strip with the stated aim of stopping rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.
Over 2,160 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed – and some 11,000 injured – during the offensive, which finally ended with a cease-fire deal signed in August.
“The ICC has informed the Palestinian government of the postponement of the delegation’s visit – initially slated for the end of July – to next fall,” Nabil Abu Zened, Palestinian ambassador to the Netherlands, told Palestinian public radio.
The court, he added, had attributed the move to technical and procedural reasons.
World Bulletin reports, via Al Ray, that Abu Zened went on, however, to suggest the delay may have been due to Israeli pressure.
Last month, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki submitted a first batch of documentary evidence to ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, which, he said, included proof of “crimes and violations committed by Israel in the Palestinian territories.”
The evidence include files related to Palestinian political prisoners languishing in Israeli jails, illegal Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and documentary evidence of war crimes committed by Israel during last year’s military onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
In the summer of last year, Israel carried out a weeks-long offensive against the blockaded Gaza Strip with the stated aim of stopping rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.
Over 2,160 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed – and some 11,000 injured – during the offensive, which finally ended with a cease-fire deal signed in August.
22 july 2015
The home next to Fatima’s that was bombed.
During the 2012 Zionist massacre in Gaza, named by the occupation as Operation Pillar of Defense, many buildings near Mohamed’s home were bombed.
Less than a year after the aggression, while playing with him, Mohamed’s mother found a lump in his neck. At this time he was eight years old.
They went to Shifa hospital, where he was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer. There he underwent the first surgery, but the operation was not successful.
After that he was allowed to travel to the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, in order to be treated in the Hospital of Haifa. Where he underwent a second surgery and received radiotherapy, unavailable in Gaza.
The Palestinian Authority pays the treatment to the Israeli hospital. For this reason, according to Mohamed’s family, the Palestinian Authority tries to prevent every journey of Mohamed from Gaza to Haifa’s hospital.
As Mohamed’s mother says, the Israeli doctors told them that this kind of cancer is due to the bombings near their home. They also told her that in 2016 the cancer rates in Gaza will rise 70% more, and that for the following 4 years it will keep growing.
Since the 2012 aggression Mohamed’s father has developed asthma as well.
In 2014 Mohamed’s home was attacked by Zionist warships. Luckily they weren’t at home in this moment. Mohamed’s family referred ISM to Fatimah, a 50 years old woman, mother of six children, who lives near them.
During the 2008 massacre, a mosque, a government building and a home were bombed next to her house. Four years ago she was diagnosed as well with thyroid cancer.
The two oncologists interviewed by ISM in Shifa Hospital and Rantisi Children Hospital, in Gaza, agreed that these kinds of cancer are due to the Zionist bombs, and explained that they were very rare before the massive aggressions against the Gaza Strip.
Note: The names have been changed, as Mohamed and Fatimah are afraid of losing the permission to leave the Strip to receive the treatment.
During the 2012 Zionist massacre in Gaza, named by the occupation as Operation Pillar of Defense, many buildings near Mohamed’s home were bombed.
Less than a year after the aggression, while playing with him, Mohamed’s mother found a lump in his neck. At this time he was eight years old.
They went to Shifa hospital, where he was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer. There he underwent the first surgery, but the operation was not successful.
After that he was allowed to travel to the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, in order to be treated in the Hospital of Haifa. Where he underwent a second surgery and received radiotherapy, unavailable in Gaza.
The Palestinian Authority pays the treatment to the Israeli hospital. For this reason, according to Mohamed’s family, the Palestinian Authority tries to prevent every journey of Mohamed from Gaza to Haifa’s hospital.
As Mohamed’s mother says, the Israeli doctors told them that this kind of cancer is due to the bombings near their home. They also told her that in 2016 the cancer rates in Gaza will rise 70% more, and that for the following 4 years it will keep growing.
Since the 2012 aggression Mohamed’s father has developed asthma as well.
In 2014 Mohamed’s home was attacked by Zionist warships. Luckily they weren’t at home in this moment. Mohamed’s family referred ISM to Fatimah, a 50 years old woman, mother of six children, who lives near them.
During the 2008 massacre, a mosque, a government building and a home were bombed next to her house. Four years ago she was diagnosed as well with thyroid cancer.
The two oncologists interviewed by ISM in Shifa Hospital and Rantisi Children Hospital, in Gaza, agreed that these kinds of cancer are due to the Zionist bombs, and explained that they were very rare before the massive aggressions against the Gaza Strip.
Note: The names have been changed, as Mohamed and Fatimah are afraid of losing the permission to leave the Strip to receive the treatment.
21 july 2015
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely
Deputy Foreign Minister Hotovely meets European officials to demand governments stop providing cash to allegedly anti-Israel organizations.
Israel is demanding that European Union member states halt funding to non-governmental organizations allegedly working to delegitimize the Jewish state. The Foreign Ministry claims that European governments provide 100-200 million euros annually to said groups.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely has begun a series of consultations with European foreign ministers, their deputies, and ambassadors of several European countries, in which she is presenting evidence that their governments provide financial assistance to organizations that support boycotts against Israel, "blacken its face around the world, accuse it of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and war crimes; deprive the Jewish people of their right to self-determination, call to prosecute Israel in the International Criminal Court at The Hague, and support the right of return".
Hotovely claimed that some of these organizations are associated with and actively support terror groups.
Hotovely has met withthe Dutch foreign minister, the Spanish deputy foreign minister, and the ambassadors of Sweden, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Switzerland.
According to Hotovely, the diplomats were presented with detailed documents collected by the Foreign Ministry and the NGO Monitor organization that prove the "problematic" funding. She emphasized that Israel sees support for organizations opposing its right to exist as crossing a red line.
Hotovely has instructed Israeli ambassadors in Europe to demand that ministries increase thier overview of funds given to such groups, warning that if her premptive diplomatic move fails, Israel will be forced to adopt legislation forbidding foreign countries from backing organizations with a clear anti-Israel bent.
According to Deputy Minister Hotovely, these are some of the European investments in such organizations in recent years:
The Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat, managed by the Institute of Law at Birzeit University in the West Bank, which received $10.5 million from the governments of Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The funds were to go to 24 political organizations over three years.
In 2014, the governments of Germany, Sweden, Norway, and the EU provided NIS 415,741 to the Coalition of Women for Peace, an organization that supports aspects of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
The Netherlands provided NIS 13 million in the last three years to numerous NGOs, including Who Profits, Al-Haq, the Coalition of Women for Peace, and Al-Mezan.
Denmark provided NIS 23 million in the last three years to several NGOs, including Breaking the Silence, BADIL, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and other Palestinian organizations.
Switzerland provided NIS 5 million over the last three years to organizations like the Alternative Information Center, Zochrot, the Applied Research Institute, and Terrestrial Jerusalem.
Spain gave NIS 3.8 million in the last three years to groups including Breaking the Silence, the Coalition of Women for Peace, the Alternative Information Center, and NOVA, a Spanish BDS organization.
The United Kingdom provided NIS 12 million in 2008-2011 to Breaking the Silence, Yesh Din, Gisha, Bimkom, Terrestrial Jerusalem, and No Legal Frontiers.
Deputy Foreign Minister Hotovely meets European officials to demand governments stop providing cash to allegedly anti-Israel organizations.
Israel is demanding that European Union member states halt funding to non-governmental organizations allegedly working to delegitimize the Jewish state. The Foreign Ministry claims that European governments provide 100-200 million euros annually to said groups.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely has begun a series of consultations with European foreign ministers, their deputies, and ambassadors of several European countries, in which she is presenting evidence that their governments provide financial assistance to organizations that support boycotts against Israel, "blacken its face around the world, accuse it of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and war crimes; deprive the Jewish people of their right to self-determination, call to prosecute Israel in the International Criminal Court at The Hague, and support the right of return".
Hotovely claimed that some of these organizations are associated with and actively support terror groups.
Hotovely has met withthe Dutch foreign minister, the Spanish deputy foreign minister, and the ambassadors of Sweden, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Switzerland.
According to Hotovely, the diplomats were presented with detailed documents collected by the Foreign Ministry and the NGO Monitor organization that prove the "problematic" funding. She emphasized that Israel sees support for organizations opposing its right to exist as crossing a red line.
Hotovely has instructed Israeli ambassadors in Europe to demand that ministries increase thier overview of funds given to such groups, warning that if her premptive diplomatic move fails, Israel will be forced to adopt legislation forbidding foreign countries from backing organizations with a clear anti-Israel bent.
According to Deputy Minister Hotovely, these are some of the European investments in such organizations in recent years:
The Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat, managed by the Institute of Law at Birzeit University in the West Bank, which received $10.5 million from the governments of Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The funds were to go to 24 political organizations over three years.
In 2014, the governments of Germany, Sweden, Norway, and the EU provided NIS 415,741 to the Coalition of Women for Peace, an organization that supports aspects of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
The Netherlands provided NIS 13 million in the last three years to numerous NGOs, including Who Profits, Al-Haq, the Coalition of Women for Peace, and Al-Mezan.
Denmark provided NIS 23 million in the last three years to several NGOs, including Breaking the Silence, BADIL, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and other Palestinian organizations.
Switzerland provided NIS 5 million over the last three years to organizations like the Alternative Information Center, Zochrot, the Applied Research Institute, and Terrestrial Jerusalem.
Spain gave NIS 3.8 million in the last three years to groups including Breaking the Silence, the Coalition of Women for Peace, the Alternative Information Center, and NOVA, a Spanish BDS organization.
The United Kingdom provided NIS 12 million in 2008-2011 to Breaking the Silence, Yesh Din, Gisha, Bimkom, Terrestrial Jerusalem, and No Legal Frontiers.
Human rights and field investigations indicated that Israel targeted many civilian communities with the internationally banned flechette shells during the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip in 2014.
Atef Abu Rock, from Khuzaa town in southern Gaza, said: "On July 17, 2014, I woke up to the sound of a loud explosion and I felt something warm coming out from my belly, then I felt pain and I realized that I was wounded." When Atef, 53, checked his house he noticed scores of darts spread everywhere.
According to experts, the flechette shells are generally fired from a tank and they release thousands of metal darts that disperse very quickly and cause severe injuries.
Ahmad, a Palestinian youth, said that the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) fired two flechette shells at Al-Taqwa Mosque which is close to his house and he was wounded while he was sleeping.
He explained that the Israeli forces used this internationally banned weapon in order to force the residents to leave the area.
"At the beginning, they fired flechette shells to force us leave the area, then they stormed the town, destroyed it, and killed the residents before they pulled out. And when we came back we didn't find our home," Ahmad told the PIC reporter.
Salim Qudeh, 22, said: "I heard two loud explosions from the close mosque then I felt severe pain in my leg that was bleeding profusely but I couldn’t go to the hospital because of the random shelling."
The Israeli occupation forces deliberately fire flechette shells at crowded civilian communities in flagrant violation of the international laws.
And the question remains: “When will Israel be held accountable for its heinous crimes against the innocent civilians?”
Atef Abu Rock, from Khuzaa town in southern Gaza, said: "On July 17, 2014, I woke up to the sound of a loud explosion and I felt something warm coming out from my belly, then I felt pain and I realized that I was wounded." When Atef, 53, checked his house he noticed scores of darts spread everywhere.
According to experts, the flechette shells are generally fired from a tank and they release thousands of metal darts that disperse very quickly and cause severe injuries.
Ahmad, a Palestinian youth, said that the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) fired two flechette shells at Al-Taqwa Mosque which is close to his house and he was wounded while he was sleeping.
He explained that the Israeli forces used this internationally banned weapon in order to force the residents to leave the area.
"At the beginning, they fired flechette shells to force us leave the area, then they stormed the town, destroyed it, and killed the residents before they pulled out. And when we came back we didn't find our home," Ahmad told the PIC reporter.
Salim Qudeh, 22, said: "I heard two loud explosions from the close mosque then I felt severe pain in my leg that was bleeding profusely but I couldn’t go to the hospital because of the random shelling."
The Israeli occupation forces deliberately fire flechette shells at crowded civilian communities in flagrant violation of the international laws.
And the question remains: “When will Israel be held accountable for its heinous crimes against the innocent civilians?”
