Israeli Bombs Wiped Out Entire Families in Gaza: Amnesty Says
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Israel used disproportionate military force during its summer operation in Gaza. Entire Palestinian families were killed when their homes were leveled by Israeli bombs falling with no warning and for little military gain, Amnesty International said.
The damning Amnesty report on Operation Protective Edge, which left at least 18,000 homes reduced to rubble or rendered uninhabitable and killed more than 1,500 Palestinians, was released on Wednesday.
"Israeli forces killed scores of Palestinian civilians in attacks targeting houses full of families, which in some cases have amounted to war crimes," the report said.
The human rights organization accused Israel of “callous indifference” towards the lives of civilians, adding that the country’s military may be guilty of war crimes.
The report details eight incidents of Israeli airstrikes on Palestinian homes, which killed at least 104 civilians including 62 children.
“Israeli forces have brazenly flouted the laws of war by carrying out a series of attacks on civilian homes, displaying callous indifference to the carnage caused,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty’s director of the Middle East and North Africa Program.
“The report exposes a pattern of attacks on civilian homes by Israeli forces which have shown a shocking disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians, who were given no warning and had no chance to flee.”
In some of the cases investigated by Amnesty the organization managed to identify possible military targets that could have provoked the strikes. But whatever military advantage the elimination of those targets could provide, the mass loss of civilian lives accompanying them clearly outweighed them, the organization stressed, RT reported.
