Gaza – Amnesty International has called for an investigation into the Israeli army’s failure to take the necessary measures to protect civilians during its attacks on areas sheltering displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip, considering this to amount to war crimes.
The organization revealed in a report issued on Monday evening that the Israeli army “failed to take all possible precautions to avoid or reduce harm to civilians in the displaced persons camps when it targeted the Kuwaiti Peace Camp west of Rafah on May 26.”
She explained that the second incident was when the Israeli army bombed a site in the “Al-Mawasi” area west of Khan Yunis on the 28th of the same month, “which led to the killing of dozens of displaced civilians, including children and women.”
The organization said that the Israeli army “used two GBU-39 guided bombs in its attack on the Kuwaiti Al-Salam camp, which are American-made bombs that release deadly shrapnel over a wide area, killing at least 36 people, including 6 children.”
She pointed out that “the use of this type of weapon in a camp crowded with displaced people constitutes a disproportionate attack that does not differentiate between civilians and military personnel, and must be investigated as a war crime.”
She added that the Israeli forces “fired artillery shells at a site in the Al-Mawasi area, which the Israeli army had classified as a humanitarian zone, killing 23 civilians, including 12 children and seven women, without distinguishing between civilians and militants.”
“This raid, which failed to distinguish between civilians and military targets by using munitions in an area full of civilians sheltering in tents, was indiscriminate and must be investigated as a war crime,” she continued.
The organization stated that “the Israeli army’s pretext of the presence of Hamas militants among the displaced does not absolve it of its responsibility to take the necessary measures to protect civilians,” stressing that “international law prohibits attacks that do not distinguish between military and civilian targets.”
The organization explained that it “interviewed 14 survivors and witnesses, inspected the attack sites, visited a hospital in Khan Yunis where the wounded were receiving treatment, photographed the remains of the munitions used in the attacks to identify their type, examined satellite images of the sites, and reviewed the Israeli army’s statements about the attacks.”
On June 24, 2024, Amnesty International sent questions about the two attacks to the Israeli authorities but did not receive a response, according to the organization’s statement.
Since October 7, Israel, with American support, has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, leaving more than 134,000 dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and deadly famine.
In contempt of the international community, Israel continues this war, ignoring the UN Security Council resolution to stop it immediately, and the International Court of Justice’s orders to take measures to prevent acts of genocide and to improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Anatolia
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2024-08-28 03:54:12
