Alwaght- Jewish human rights group, B’Tselem, condemned Israeli Regime's policy of targeting dozens of Palestinian homes during 51 offensive against Gaza – a strategy that led to hundreds of civilian deaths.
The report is the latest alleging serious breaches of international humanitarian law by Israel during the 51-day attack that led to the deaths of 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children. During this war over 11,100, including 3,374 children, 2,088 women, and 410 elderly people were injured, the vast majority of them Hamas members or their families. 17,200 Gazan homes were totally destroyed or severely damaged, and 37,650 homes suffered damage. At least 520,000 Gazans (approximately 30% of its population) have been displaced.
The statement released at a sensitive time for Israeli regime following the announcement this month of an initial investigation by the international criminal court into whether war crimes were committed in Gaza. The specific policy of targeting residences could potentially be taken up by an ICC investigation.
The prosecution of the war is also being investigated by the UN Human Rights Council, by a commission of inquiry set up by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and by the Israeli regime comptroller, Joseph Shapira, who has been tasked with investigating decisions made by Israeli regime political and military leaders.
The B’Tselem research follows hard on the heels of a report by Physicians for Human Rights-Israeli regime this month that strongly criticized the Zionists military’s system for warning Gaza’s citizens of impending strikes during the conflict, also citing the lack of safe evacuation routes and strikes against rescue teams.
In December, Amnesty International said the destruction of four high-rise buildings during the conflict was a war crime “carried out deliberately and with no military justification”.
“This is something we had not seen in previous rounds of violence in Gaza,” said B’Tselem’s executive director Hagai El-Ad. “[Israeli regime] should have been aware this high civilian death toll would be the outcome of this policy. And if not on day one, then certainly by day 12. Yet the policy continued until the end of the violence.”
Although B’Tselem sent a copy of the report to Netanyahu’s office for comment more than a week ago, his office had not responded by the time of publication.
