UN report says Israel Targeted Civilians in Gaza
Violations Against Civilians During the Gaza Offensive
Mar 29, 2009
The charges came in reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council on March 23, which also called for an urgent end to Israeli restrictions on humanitarian supplies to Gaza and a full international investigation into the conflict.
"Civilian targets, particularly homes and their occupants, appear to have taken the brunt of the attacks, but schools and medical facilities have also been hit," said one report by Radhika Coomaraswamy, human rights lawyer and U.N. Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. When Mrs Coomaraswamy visited the region in early February, she watched a long series of incidents that today back her charges.
One of those incidents, she said, saw an Israeli soldier shooting a father after ordering him out of his house and then opening fire into the room where the rest of the family was sheltering, wounding the mother and three brothers and killing a fourth.
In another episode, dated January 15, at Tal al Hawa south-west of Gaza City, Israeli soldiers forced an 11-year-old boy to walk in front of them for several hours as they moved through the town, even after they had been shot at.
UN Report Connfirms Israel's Violations of Human Rights
Coomaraswamy's comments formed part of a much longer report from nine U.N. investigators including specialists on the right to health, to food, to adequate housing and education and on summary executions and violence against women. All cited violations by Israel, and in some cases by the Hamas Islamic movement that controls Gaza, during the war from December 27 until January 17.
All cited violations by Israel, and in some cases by the Hamas Islamic movement that controls Gaza, during the invasion from December 27 until January 17 which Israeli leaders say was launched to stop rocket attacks by Hamas from the territory.
Palestinian officials say that the victims of the fighting mounted to 1,434 people in Gaza, 960 of them civilians, a figure contested by Israel. The UN report gave the total as 1,440, saying of these 431 were children and 114 women.
The report was criticised in the Human Rights Council by Israel's ambassador Aharon Leshno Yar, who said it "wilfully ignores and downplays the terrorist and other threats we face," and the use by Hamas of human shields.
But on Monday another report was presented at the Council. The UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Mr Robert Falk, said Israel had subjected civilians in Gaza to "an inhuman form of warfare that kills, maims and inflicts mental harm" (Reuters, 23 March 2008).In his report he called for an independent experts group to probe possible war crimes by Israel and Hamas and also suggested that the UN Security Council set up an ad hoc criminal tribunal.
