13 feb 2015
The Associated Press examined 247 airstrikes that hit residential compounds, out of the some 5,000 Israeli strikes during the summer conflict.
The youngest to die was a 4-day-old girl, the oldest a 92-year-old man.
They were among at least 844 Palestinians killed as a result of airstrikes on homes during Israel's summer war with the Islamic militant group, Hamas.
Under the rules of war, homes are considered protected civilian sites unless used for military purposes. Israel says it attacked only legitimate targets, alleging militants used the houses to hide weapons, fighters and command centers. Palestinians say Israel's warplanes often struck without regard for civilians.
The Associated Press examined 247 airstrikes that - according to witness accounts and site visits - hit residential compounds, out of the some 5,000 Israeli strikes during the conflict. Its reporters compiled a detailed casualty count, determining 844 dead in those strikes.
The review found that 508 of those dead - just over 60 percent - were children, women and older men, all presumed to be civilians. Hamas says it did not use women as fighters in the war, and an Israel-based research group tracking militants among the dead said it has no evidence women participated in combat.
The AP count also showed that:
- Children younger than 16 made up one-third of the total: 280 killed, including 19 babies and 108 preschoolers between the ages of 1 and 5.
- In 83 strikes, three or more members of one family died.
- Among those killed were 96 confirmed or suspected militants - or just over 11 percent of the total - though the actual number could be higher since armed groups have not released detailed casualty lists.
- The remaining 240 dead were males between the ages of 16 and 59 whose names did not appear in connection with militant groups on searches of websites or on street posters honoring fighters.
The review was the most painstaking attempt to date to determine who was killed in strikes on homes in the Gaza war, even as Israel's army and Gaza militants have refused to release information about targets and casualties. The count tracked all known airstrikes, but not all strikes had witnesses and damage at sites inspected by the AP wasn't always conclusive.
According to preliminary U.N. figures, the total Palestinian death toll from the conflict was 2,205. The number of civilians among those killed has been a key issue in the highly charged battle over the dominant narrative of the 50-day war, the third and most destructive confrontation between Israel and Hamas since 2008.
The war erupted in July, after a month of escalating tensions triggered by the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens by Hamas in the West Bank, and an Israeli arrest sweep of Hamas supporters that led to renewed Gaza rocket fire on Israel.
Israel says it tried to avoid harming civilians, even as Hamas embedded weapons and fighters in residential areas in what Israel calls a cynical attempt to drive up the civilian death toll for propaganda purposes.
"Our position is very clear. Israel did not commit war crimes," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon.
Palestinians say Israel attacked Gaza with disproportionate force and callous disregard for civilians.
"Either they have the worst army in the world that constantly misses targets and hits civilians, or they are deliberately killing civilians," said Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian spokeswoman. If most of those killed are civilians, "you cannot call them collateral damage," she said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, though a political rival of Hamas, has asked the International Criminal Court to investigate the war, a move that could pave the way for a possible prosecution of both Israel and Hamas.
On its own, a high civilian death toll does not constitute evidence of war crimes, and each strike has to be investigated separately, according to internal law experts, including Alex Whiting of Harvard.
But it "certainly raises a red flag and suggests that further investigation is warranted," said Whiting, a former top official at the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands.
Israel would not say how many of the 5,000 air attacks it carried out during the war were directed at homes. However, it said it only aimed at legitimate military targets.
Asked for comment on the AP's findings, an Israeli army spokesman, Lt. Peter Lerner, said that "one cannot draw broad conclusions" by examining only a small percentage of Israel's airstrikes.
"While loss of civilian life is regrettable, combatting a terrorist organization with semi-state military capabilities that intentionally conceals those capabilities within and beneath homes, schools, hospitals and mosques is the reality of urban warfare," Lerner said.
According to preliminary U.N. figures, at least 1,483 Palestinian civilians were killed in the war - 66 percent of the overall death toll of 2,205.
Gaza militants fired about 4,300 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel during the war, according to the Israeli military. The barrage drove tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes to seek cover. Five civilians were killed in Israel, among them a 4-year-old boy, along with 67 soldiers.
Gaza militant groups have not released complete lists of fighters killed in the war. Israel says about 890 militants were killed in Gaza, including 590 from Hamas, 200 from Islamic Jihad and 100 from other armed factions. It did not say how many were killed in airstrikes on homes.
A Hamas official said the group lost about 400 fighters, including many killed in battles with Israeli soldiers and a smaller number who died in house strikes, though he gave no precise figure. The smaller Islamic Jihad group said 135 of its armed men were killed overall.
In the initial stages, the AP's reporting was guided by Al Mezan, a Gaza human rights group, and the Israeli rights group, B'Tselem, which published partial findings on house strikes or provided names of families.
The count included 247 airstrikes in which people were killed in homes or adjacent yards, including those hit by flying shrapnel or debris from attacks on neighboring buildings. The AP looked only at cases where homes were hit from the air, excluding artillery strikes, which are inherently inaccurate.
Starting in November, three reporters visited the vast majority of attack sites, interviewed survivors and collected hundreds of death certificates - documents recognized by Israel as proof of mortality. The certificates contain birth dates, allowing a breakdown of the dead by age.
Reuven Erlich, who heads the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israel-based research group that is tracking militants among the Gaza dead, said the group has found no evidence that women participated in combat.
Commenting on the AP count, the retired intelligence officer questioned the reliability of Gaza witnesses and said only military experts on the ground would be able to determine what happened in each strike.
The deadliest attack occurred at 7:30 a.m. on July 29, a Muslim holiday, flattening an apartment building in the town of Khan Younis. It killed 33 people from four families and a young girl in a neighboring home.
A possible target was Ahmed Moammar, 32, who died in the attack. A poster next to the debris praised him as a "prominent leader" of the local military wing of Islamic Jihad.
His widow, Tahrir, said her husband had been on the move since the start of the war, but had slept at home the night before the strike, which also killed her 2-year-old daughter, Hala, and 3-year-old son, Yazan.
The youngest victim, Shayma Sheik Ali, died four days after her mother was killed in an airstrike on July 25.
The infant was delivered by emergency cesarean section after the body of her mother, who was nine months pregnant, was pulled from the rubble of their home in the Deir el-Balah refugee camp, her relatives said. The newborn was placed in an incubator and died July 29, according to her death certificate.
The oldest victim, 92-year-old Abdel Karim Abu Nijem, was killed along with a son, three grandsons and three other relatives, in an airstrike on his home in the Jebaliya refugee camp. Islamic Jihad later confirmed that two fighters, including a senior commander, were also killed in that strike.
A nephew, Mohammed Abu Nijem, said he heard later that "two Islamic Jihad fighters were passing by the house and that both were killed." He said the family received no warning of an impending strike.
"Otherwise we would have fled," said Abu Nijem, whose 29-year-old wife, Soha, and 3-year-old daughter, Ragheb, were among the dead.
The military said it warned civilians when possible, including through phone calls or "knocks on the roof" with non-explosive missiles, and it aborted some strikes due to civilians in the vicinity. However, citing the Geneva Conventions, it said "advance warning is not always feasible," including when the element of surprise is needed to attack an enemy fighter.
Among the militants targeted by the strikes was Mohammed Deif, a shadowy leader of the Hamas military wing. Under Deif's guidance, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades built rockets and dug dozens of attack tunnels into Israel.
On Aug. 19, Israeli aircraft dropped several bombs on an apartment building owned by Rabah al-Dalo in Gaza City. "It was like judgment day," al-Dalo, 49, said of the strike that killed his wife and two sons, 19 and 13, along with one of Deif's wives and two of the couple's young children. Deif's fate remains unclear.
Two days later, warplanes leveled a four-story home before dawn in the southern town of Rafah, killing three senior commanders of the al-Qassam brigades, along with eight civilians.
Rami Younis, who lives next to the targeted building, said the blast destroyed the outer wall of a bedroom, killing his father, stepmother and 4-year-old daughter, Seba. Younis said he didn't know the militant commanders were present. Asked if he felt the men endangered the neighborhood, he said: "There is no point in talking now."
Until recently, the debate about a possible war crimes inquiry into the Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza appeared largely theoretical.
However, in January, the Palestinians joined the International Criminal Court, opening the way for possible investigations of both Israel and Hamas. In response, the ICC prosecutor launched a preliminary review of whether a full probe is warranted.
Advocacy groups and U.N. investigators have said that Hamas' battle tactics over the years, including indiscriminate rocket fire at Israel, amount to war crimes.
Israel alleges that militants used Gaza civilians as human shields more than in previous wars, turning homes into command centers and weapons storehouses or firing rockets from nearby. At the same time, Israel's military says it is conducting a transparent investigation of any wrongdoing by its forces.
Rights groups in Israel and abroad demand an independent investigation, including of the strikes on houses, arguing these were a policy approved at the highest levels and the Israeli military cannot investigate itself in this case.
B'Tselem, the Israeli rights group, rejected Israel's claim that the policy of house bombings is lawful.
"This argument ignores the spirit and purpose of international humanitarian law, which primarily aims at reducing as much as possible the harm caused to the civilian population," the group wrote in a report on house strikes last month.
This policy is "unlawful through and through," it said.
Whiting, the former ICC official, noted that the court would only open a formal war crimes probe if it determines that the relevant authorities - in this case Israel and Hamas - did not conduct proper investigations.
The rules of war are often vague and open to interpretation.
They allow for attacking a home if it is used for military purposes, such as storing weapons. If a home is deemed a legitimate target, harm to civilians must be proportionate to the military advantage created by an attack. Proportionality is judged by anticipated, not actual civilian deaths, and there is no formula for what is deemed excessive harm to civilians, international law experts said.
In the Gaza strikes, a key piece of information has been missing: What exactly was targeted? Both Israel and Gaza militant groups have withheld such information.
Israel says revealing targets could harm intelligence-gathering, and legal experts say armies are not required to give such information.
Human rights groups said Israel must be more transparent.
"In these specific attacks, the onus is on the Israeli authorities to come clean and say what it was they were targeting, and how it was they could justify targeting a house full of children and other civilians," said Philip Luther of Amnesty International, which has looked into eight house attacks and alleged some amounted to war crimes.
The legal aftermath of the war is bound to be complicated.
In addition to the preliminary examination by the ICC prosecutor, the U.N. Human Rights Council formed a commission of inquiry, but Israel has said it won't cooperate with the team, alleging anti-Israel bias. Israel is cooperating with a second U.N. investigation into deaths, injuries and damage to U.N. premises, as well as the discovery of militant weapons in some vacant U.N. schools.
The Israeli military said it has bolstered its system of internal investigations, adding teams of senior officers outside the chain of command. It has launched 13 criminal investigations and closed nine cases after finding no wrongdoing, while 85 other complaints about what it calls "exceptional incidents" are still under review.
One criminal probe involves a strike that apparently targeted a commander in the Hamas military wing but also killed 24 members of the Abu Jamea family, including 18 children between 6 months and 9 years old, according to death certificates.
The military said it found "reasonable suspicion" of a deviation from approved procedure, but did not name the target.
In two other attacks on homes, an initial review found no fault, the military said.
The youngest to die was a 4-day-old girl, the oldest a 92-year-old man.
They were among at least 844 Palestinians killed as a result of airstrikes on homes during Israel's summer war with the Islamic militant group, Hamas.
Under the rules of war, homes are considered protected civilian sites unless used for military purposes. Israel says it attacked only legitimate targets, alleging militants used the houses to hide weapons, fighters and command centers. Palestinians say Israel's warplanes often struck without regard for civilians.
The Associated Press examined 247 airstrikes that - according to witness accounts and site visits - hit residential compounds, out of the some 5,000 Israeli strikes during the conflict. Its reporters compiled a detailed casualty count, determining 844 dead in those strikes.
The review found that 508 of those dead - just over 60 percent - were children, women and older men, all presumed to be civilians. Hamas says it did not use women as fighters in the war, and an Israel-based research group tracking militants among the dead said it has no evidence women participated in combat.
The AP count also showed that:
- Children younger than 16 made up one-third of the total: 280 killed, including 19 babies and 108 preschoolers between the ages of 1 and 5.
- In 83 strikes, three or more members of one family died.
- Among those killed were 96 confirmed or suspected militants - or just over 11 percent of the total - though the actual number could be higher since armed groups have not released detailed casualty lists.
- The remaining 240 dead were males between the ages of 16 and 59 whose names did not appear in connection with militant groups on searches of websites or on street posters honoring fighters.
The review was the most painstaking attempt to date to determine who was killed in strikes on homes in the Gaza war, even as Israel's army and Gaza militants have refused to release information about targets and casualties. The count tracked all known airstrikes, but not all strikes had witnesses and damage at sites inspected by the AP wasn't always conclusive.
According to preliminary U.N. figures, the total Palestinian death toll from the conflict was 2,205. The number of civilians among those killed has been a key issue in the highly charged battle over the dominant narrative of the 50-day war, the third and most destructive confrontation between Israel and Hamas since 2008.
The war erupted in July, after a month of escalating tensions triggered by the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens by Hamas in the West Bank, and an Israeli arrest sweep of Hamas supporters that led to renewed Gaza rocket fire on Israel.
Israel says it tried to avoid harming civilians, even as Hamas embedded weapons and fighters in residential areas in what Israel calls a cynical attempt to drive up the civilian death toll for propaganda purposes.
"Our position is very clear. Israel did not commit war crimes," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon.
Palestinians say Israel attacked Gaza with disproportionate force and callous disregard for civilians.
"Either they have the worst army in the world that constantly misses targets and hits civilians, or they are deliberately killing civilians," said Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian spokeswoman. If most of those killed are civilians, "you cannot call them collateral damage," she said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, though a political rival of Hamas, has asked the International Criminal Court to investigate the war, a move that could pave the way for a possible prosecution of both Israel and Hamas.
On its own, a high civilian death toll does not constitute evidence of war crimes, and each strike has to be investigated separately, according to internal law experts, including Alex Whiting of Harvard.
But it "certainly raises a red flag and suggests that further investigation is warranted," said Whiting, a former top official at the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands.
Israel would not say how many of the 5,000 air attacks it carried out during the war were directed at homes. However, it said it only aimed at legitimate military targets.
Asked for comment on the AP's findings, an Israeli army spokesman, Lt. Peter Lerner, said that "one cannot draw broad conclusions" by examining only a small percentage of Israel's airstrikes.
"While loss of civilian life is regrettable, combatting a terrorist organization with semi-state military capabilities that intentionally conceals those capabilities within and beneath homes, schools, hospitals and mosques is the reality of urban warfare," Lerner said.
According to preliminary U.N. figures, at least 1,483 Palestinian civilians were killed in the war - 66 percent of the overall death toll of 2,205.
Gaza militants fired about 4,300 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel during the war, according to the Israeli military. The barrage drove tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes to seek cover. Five civilians were killed in Israel, among them a 4-year-old boy, along with 67 soldiers.
Gaza militant groups have not released complete lists of fighters killed in the war. Israel says about 890 militants were killed in Gaza, including 590 from Hamas, 200 from Islamic Jihad and 100 from other armed factions. It did not say how many were killed in airstrikes on homes.
A Hamas official said the group lost about 400 fighters, including many killed in battles with Israeli soldiers and a smaller number who died in house strikes, though he gave no precise figure. The smaller Islamic Jihad group said 135 of its armed men were killed overall.
In the initial stages, the AP's reporting was guided by Al Mezan, a Gaza human rights group, and the Israeli rights group, B'Tselem, which published partial findings on house strikes or provided names of families.
The count included 247 airstrikes in which people were killed in homes or adjacent yards, including those hit by flying shrapnel or debris from attacks on neighboring buildings. The AP looked only at cases where homes were hit from the air, excluding artillery strikes, which are inherently inaccurate.
Starting in November, three reporters visited the vast majority of attack sites, interviewed survivors and collected hundreds of death certificates - documents recognized by Israel as proof of mortality. The certificates contain birth dates, allowing a breakdown of the dead by age.
Reuven Erlich, who heads the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israel-based research group that is tracking militants among the Gaza dead, said the group has found no evidence that women participated in combat.
Commenting on the AP count, the retired intelligence officer questioned the reliability of Gaza witnesses and said only military experts on the ground would be able to determine what happened in each strike.
The deadliest attack occurred at 7:30 a.m. on July 29, a Muslim holiday, flattening an apartment building in the town of Khan Younis. It killed 33 people from four families and a young girl in a neighboring home.
A possible target was Ahmed Moammar, 32, who died in the attack. A poster next to the debris praised him as a "prominent leader" of the local military wing of Islamic Jihad.
His widow, Tahrir, said her husband had been on the move since the start of the war, but had slept at home the night before the strike, which also killed her 2-year-old daughter, Hala, and 3-year-old son, Yazan.
The youngest victim, Shayma Sheik Ali, died four days after her mother was killed in an airstrike on July 25.
The infant was delivered by emergency cesarean section after the body of her mother, who was nine months pregnant, was pulled from the rubble of their home in the Deir el-Balah refugee camp, her relatives said. The newborn was placed in an incubator and died July 29, according to her death certificate.
The oldest victim, 92-year-old Abdel Karim Abu Nijem, was killed along with a son, three grandsons and three other relatives, in an airstrike on his home in the Jebaliya refugee camp. Islamic Jihad later confirmed that two fighters, including a senior commander, were also killed in that strike.
A nephew, Mohammed Abu Nijem, said he heard later that "two Islamic Jihad fighters were passing by the house and that both were killed." He said the family received no warning of an impending strike.
"Otherwise we would have fled," said Abu Nijem, whose 29-year-old wife, Soha, and 3-year-old daughter, Ragheb, were among the dead.
The military said it warned civilians when possible, including through phone calls or "knocks on the roof" with non-explosive missiles, and it aborted some strikes due to civilians in the vicinity. However, citing the Geneva Conventions, it said "advance warning is not always feasible," including when the element of surprise is needed to attack an enemy fighter.
Among the militants targeted by the strikes was Mohammed Deif, a shadowy leader of the Hamas military wing. Under Deif's guidance, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades built rockets and dug dozens of attack tunnels into Israel.
On Aug. 19, Israeli aircraft dropped several bombs on an apartment building owned by Rabah al-Dalo in Gaza City. "It was like judgment day," al-Dalo, 49, said of the strike that killed his wife and two sons, 19 and 13, along with one of Deif's wives and two of the couple's young children. Deif's fate remains unclear.
Two days later, warplanes leveled a four-story home before dawn in the southern town of Rafah, killing three senior commanders of the al-Qassam brigades, along with eight civilians.
Rami Younis, who lives next to the targeted building, said the blast destroyed the outer wall of a bedroom, killing his father, stepmother and 4-year-old daughter, Seba. Younis said he didn't know the militant commanders were present. Asked if he felt the men endangered the neighborhood, he said: "There is no point in talking now."
Until recently, the debate about a possible war crimes inquiry into the Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza appeared largely theoretical.
However, in January, the Palestinians joined the International Criminal Court, opening the way for possible investigations of both Israel and Hamas. In response, the ICC prosecutor launched a preliminary review of whether a full probe is warranted.
Advocacy groups and U.N. investigators have said that Hamas' battle tactics over the years, including indiscriminate rocket fire at Israel, amount to war crimes.
Israel alleges that militants used Gaza civilians as human shields more than in previous wars, turning homes into command centers and weapons storehouses or firing rockets from nearby. At the same time, Israel's military says it is conducting a transparent investigation of any wrongdoing by its forces.
Rights groups in Israel and abroad demand an independent investigation, including of the strikes on houses, arguing these were a policy approved at the highest levels and the Israeli military cannot investigate itself in this case.
B'Tselem, the Israeli rights group, rejected Israel's claim that the policy of house bombings is lawful.
"This argument ignores the spirit and purpose of international humanitarian law, which primarily aims at reducing as much as possible the harm caused to the civilian population," the group wrote in a report on house strikes last month.
This policy is "unlawful through and through," it said.
Whiting, the former ICC official, noted that the court would only open a formal war crimes probe if it determines that the relevant authorities - in this case Israel and Hamas - did not conduct proper investigations.
The rules of war are often vague and open to interpretation.
They allow for attacking a home if it is used for military purposes, such as storing weapons. If a home is deemed a legitimate target, harm to civilians must be proportionate to the military advantage created by an attack. Proportionality is judged by anticipated, not actual civilian deaths, and there is no formula for what is deemed excessive harm to civilians, international law experts said.
In the Gaza strikes, a key piece of information has been missing: What exactly was targeted? Both Israel and Gaza militant groups have withheld such information.
Israel says revealing targets could harm intelligence-gathering, and legal experts say armies are not required to give such information.
Human rights groups said Israel must be more transparent.
"In these specific attacks, the onus is on the Israeli authorities to come clean and say what it was they were targeting, and how it was they could justify targeting a house full of children and other civilians," said Philip Luther of Amnesty International, which has looked into eight house attacks and alleged some amounted to war crimes.
The legal aftermath of the war is bound to be complicated.
In addition to the preliminary examination by the ICC prosecutor, the U.N. Human Rights Council formed a commission of inquiry, but Israel has said it won't cooperate with the team, alleging anti-Israel bias. Israel is cooperating with a second U.N. investigation into deaths, injuries and damage to U.N. premises, as well as the discovery of militant weapons in some vacant U.N. schools.
The Israeli military said it has bolstered its system of internal investigations, adding teams of senior officers outside the chain of command. It has launched 13 criminal investigations and closed nine cases after finding no wrongdoing, while 85 other complaints about what it calls "exceptional incidents" are still under review.
One criminal probe involves a strike that apparently targeted a commander in the Hamas military wing but also killed 24 members of the Abu Jamea family, including 18 children between 6 months and 9 years old, according to death certificates.
The military said it found "reasonable suspicion" of a deviation from approved procedure, but did not name the target.
In two other attacks on homes, an initial review found no fault, the military said.
12 feb 2015
The Federation of Arab Journalists (FAJ) said it supports the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate's decision to prosecute Israeli officials at international courts for committing war crimes against Palestinian journalists.
In a statement, the Federation said that it had named its conference that was held from February 9 to 10 in the Moroccan city of Tangier "The martyrs of the Palestinian press," to honor the journalists who had been killed by the Israeli occupation.
The statement expressed the Federation's solidarity with the Palestinian people and hailed their heroic steadfastness in the face of the Israeli occupation.
"The Federation of Arab Journalists condemns the state terrorism which the Zionist occupation authorities are practicing against the Arab Palestinian people, who have become in dire need for international resolutions ending the occupation and its terrorism," the statement underscored.
In a statement, the Federation said that it had named its conference that was held from February 9 to 10 in the Moroccan city of Tangier "The martyrs of the Palestinian press," to honor the journalists who had been killed by the Israeli occupation.
The statement expressed the Federation's solidarity with the Palestinian people and hailed their heroic steadfastness in the face of the Israeli occupation.
"The Federation of Arab Journalists condemns the state terrorism which the Zionist occupation authorities are practicing against the Arab Palestinian people, who have become in dire need for international resolutions ending the occupation and its terrorism," the statement underscored.
8 feb 2015
Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, called for supporting the National Committee entrusted with following up cases to be lodged with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, in a statement on Sunday, asked for maintaining the committee’s independence and to prevent any political impacts on its decisions against the rights of the Palestinian people.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas ordered on Saturday the formation of a committee, known as the National Higher Committee, to follow up cases to be lodged with the International Criminal Court.
The committee will identify and prepare the documents and records that the state of Palestine will present to the ICC through a technical committee headed by the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The committee will be responsible for the formation of competent technical and legal committees to work under its authority. Other assignments will include consultation with the ICC and other international and local institutions on cases regarding crimes committed against the Palestinian people and field with the ICC.
Abbas also assigned the committee to set up a comprehensive media plan, giving it powers to determine its priorities and parties to cooperate with for implementation of its tasks.
The presidential decree also mentioned that the committee will be formed by the collaboration of Palestinian ministries and institutions including related civil organizations.
A special budget will be allocated for the committee in accordance with a plan to be submitted by the committee to the PA in consistence with work requirements. Periodical reports on the committee’s achievements are to be submitted to Abbas.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, in a statement on Sunday, asked for maintaining the committee’s independence and to prevent any political impacts on its decisions against the rights of the Palestinian people.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas ordered on Saturday the formation of a committee, known as the National Higher Committee, to follow up cases to be lodged with the International Criminal Court.
The committee will identify and prepare the documents and records that the state of Palestine will present to the ICC through a technical committee headed by the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The committee will be responsible for the formation of competent technical and legal committees to work under its authority. Other assignments will include consultation with the ICC and other international and local institutions on cases regarding crimes committed against the Palestinian people and field with the ICC.
Abbas also assigned the committee to set up a comprehensive media plan, giving it powers to determine its priorities and parties to cooperate with for implementation of its tasks.
The presidential decree also mentioned that the committee will be formed by the collaboration of Palestinian ministries and institutions including related civil organizations.
A special budget will be allocated for the committee in accordance with a plan to be submitted by the committee to the PA in consistence with work requirements. Periodical reports on the committee’s achievements are to be submitted to Abbas.
Head of EuroPal Communication Forum Zaher al-Birawi called on Arab and Palestinian institutions, on both popular and official levels, to pressure for bringing Israeli leaders to account in international courts for committing war crimes in Gaza.
Referring to the resignation of William Schabas the head of UN inquiry into the Israeli war on Gaza last summer, Birawi ruled out the possibility that the resignation would affect the commission’s work. He explained that it has reached the final phase of collecting evidences from the largest number of victims and witnesses.
Birawi said, in a press release, the conditions of the resignation and the Israeli pressure should be met with identical pressure from the Palestinian side. He called on all competent authorities concerned in human rights and international justice to prevent Israel’s escape from justice.
The Israeli Occupation Authority (IOA) has been publicly refusing to cooperate with the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry to investigate Israeli war crimes during last summer’s aggression on Gaza, Birawi underlined.
William Schabas had quit over an official letter of complaint from Israel’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva Eviatar Manor demanding the removal of William Schabas from the UN Inquiry.
Referring to the resignation of William Schabas the head of UN inquiry into the Israeli war on Gaza last summer, Birawi ruled out the possibility that the resignation would affect the commission’s work. He explained that it has reached the final phase of collecting evidences from the largest number of victims and witnesses.
Birawi said, in a press release, the conditions of the resignation and the Israeli pressure should be met with identical pressure from the Palestinian side. He called on all competent authorities concerned in human rights and international justice to prevent Israel’s escape from justice.
The Israeli Occupation Authority (IOA) has been publicly refusing to cooperate with the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry to investigate Israeli war crimes during last summer’s aggression on Gaza, Birawi underlined.
William Schabas had quit over an official letter of complaint from Israel’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva Eviatar Manor demanding the removal of William Schabas from the UN Inquiry.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday announced he formed a committee tasked with following up on the Palestinian complaints against Israel at the International Criminal Court.
Palestine joined the International Criminal Court in January, after its statehood bid fell through at the United Nations, drawing fresh opposition from Washington, a close ally of the Zionist state. ICC membership allows the Palestinians to lodge war crimes complaints against Israel as of April.
The committee, which will be headed by Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat, will consist of forty Palestinian politicians of all stripes, academics and human rights activists, as well as representatives of Palestinian institutions such as the ministries of justice and foreign affairs, i24 said.
The committee will work on preparing the body of documents and records which the Palestinians intend to submit to the ICC.
The first case they will refer to the international body will be Israel's actions during this summer's Gaza war.
Occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in January that Israel will not permit its soldiers to be hauled in front of the ICC on potential war crimes charges.
He further added the Palestinian leadership should be put on trial before the ICC for signing a 2014 reconciliation agreement with the Islamist Hamas movement which led to the establishment of a national consensus government.
The 51-day Israeli attack on Gaza last summer killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, many of them civilians, and has caused growing instability in Gaza, where 100,000 people whose homes were destroyed or damaged remain displaced.
On the Israeli side, about 73 militants died.
Palestine joined the International Criminal Court in January, after its statehood bid fell through at the United Nations, drawing fresh opposition from Washington, a close ally of the Zionist state. ICC membership allows the Palestinians to lodge war crimes complaints against Israel as of April.
The committee, which will be headed by Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat, will consist of forty Palestinian politicians of all stripes, academics and human rights activists, as well as representatives of Palestinian institutions such as the ministries of justice and foreign affairs, i24 said.
The committee will work on preparing the body of documents and records which the Palestinians intend to submit to the ICC.
The first case they will refer to the international body will be Israel's actions during this summer's Gaza war.
Occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in January that Israel will not permit its soldiers to be hauled in front of the ICC on potential war crimes charges.
He further added the Palestinian leadership should be put on trial before the ICC for signing a 2014 reconciliation agreement with the Islamist Hamas movement which led to the establishment of a national consensus government.
The 51-day Israeli attack on Gaza last summer killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, many of them civilians, and has caused growing instability in Gaza, where 100,000 people whose homes were destroyed or damaged remain displaced.
On the Israeli side, about 73 militants died.
6 feb 2015
A United Nations spokesman has announced that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has appointed Nickolay Mladenov, from Bulgaria, as the top Mideast envoy, replacing Robert Serry.
UN spokesman Farhan Haqq stated to the press that Mladenov, who has occupied the position of top envoy in Iraq since August of 2013, was Bulgaria's foreign minister from 2012 to 2013. He is also known for his work within the international banking sphere.
PNN further reports that, according to officials and diplomats in the United Nations, the identity of Mladenov's successor as top envoy in Iraq is still unknown.
Serry, a veteran Dutch diplomat, has been the UN's special coordinator for the Middle East peace process and Ban's personal representative to the Palestinian Authority since November 2007. He is also the Secretary-General's envoy to the so-called Quartet of Middle East mediators.
UN spokesman Farhan Haqq stated to the press that Mladenov, who has occupied the position of top envoy in Iraq since August of 2013, was Bulgaria's foreign minister from 2012 to 2013. He is also known for his work within the international banking sphere.
PNN further reports that, according to officials and diplomats in the United Nations, the identity of Mladenov's successor as top envoy in Iraq is still unknown.
Serry, a veteran Dutch diplomat, has been the UN's special coordinator for the Middle East peace process and Ban's personal representative to the Palestinian Authority since November 2007. He is also the Secretary-General's envoy to the so-called Quartet of Middle East mediators.
The UN independent inquiry commission investigating Israeli war crimes in Gaza decided Thursday to extend its deadline for the receipt of reports from the public to 15 February 2015.
The commissioners, in a statement released on Thursday, expressed their sincere thanks to all victims, eyewitnesses and groups for contributing to the success of their work and reiterated their commitment to accomplishing their mission to the fullest.
Following Professor Schabas's decision to step aside, the two remaining commissioners, Mary McGowan Davis and Doudou Diene, pledged to redouble their efforts to deliver on the mandate given to them and submit the results of their probe to the Human Rights Council as scheduled in March 2015.
US judge Mary Davis, who replaced William Schabas as head of the probe committee, and Dr. Diene, also expressed their gratitude to Schabas for dedicating his time and expertise for several months for the committee.
The UN commission urged individuals, groups and organizations to provide it with further information and documentation on the last Gaza war.
The statement pointed out that the submissions should be sent in a written form and must include the contact details of the author(s) of any report to the email, [email protected].
The commissioners, in a statement released on Thursday, expressed their sincere thanks to all victims, eyewitnesses and groups for contributing to the success of their work and reiterated their commitment to accomplishing their mission to the fullest.
Following Professor Schabas's decision to step aside, the two remaining commissioners, Mary McGowan Davis and Doudou Diene, pledged to redouble their efforts to deliver on the mandate given to them and submit the results of their probe to the Human Rights Council as scheduled in March 2015.
US judge Mary Davis, who replaced William Schabas as head of the probe committee, and Dr. Diene, also expressed their gratitude to Schabas for dedicating his time and expertise for several months for the committee.
The UN commission urged individuals, groups and organizations to provide it with further information and documentation on the last Gaza war.
The statement pointed out that the submissions should be sent in a written form and must include the contact details of the author(s) of any report to the email, [email protected].
