Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumUN report is a reminder: Over 1.5 million people live in the Gaza Strip. It is not a battlefield
June 29, 2015
Brief humanitarian ceasefire in Beit Hanoun, 26 July 2014. Photo: Muhamad Sabah, B'Tselem.
Last summers Gaza conflict, known as Operation Protective Edge, began on 8 July 2014 and ended about fifty days later, on 26 August 2014. The devastation it would leave in its wake was known even when the fighting was still underway. The massive scale of it became clear once it was over. According to UN figures, more than 2,200 people were killed in Gaza, nearly 70% of them civilians who did not take part in the hostilities, including hundreds of women and children. Thousands of houses were destroyed and tens of thousands of people were displaced from their homes. According to BTselem figures, six civilians including a young boy were killed in Israel and 66 members of the Israeli security forces were killed in the fighting. There are no figures to convey the terror and fear experienced by millions of people during and after the war.
Even during the fighting, Israeli officials, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu down to the officers serving in the Gaza Strip, all claimed that the military was doing everything in its power to avoid harm to civilians, above and beyond its legal obligations, and far more than any other army does. They claimed that any harm caused to civilians during the fighting in Gaza was Hamas fault, as Hamas had carried out its activities from within the civilian population, using it as a human shield, and made the conscious choice to place this population and its property in harms way.
This was the official position adopted by the Israeli government. Statements to this effect were also made in response to the report published on 22 June 2015 by the commission of inquiry (COI) appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. The report examined the lawfulness of the conduct by both Israel and Palestinian armed groups during the fighting in Gaza.
In its report, the COI rejects Israels position, holding that Israel is responsible for the massive harm it inflicted on the civilian population in the Gaza Strip over the summer. The COI goes on to find that the Israeli military did not do enough to prevent harm to civilians and that in some cases, persisted in a policy that had already been proven to cause massive harm to civilians. These findings do not address any specific action taken by the military during the fighting. Rather, the COI rejects the prevailing view among Israeli government and military officials regarding what is permitted and what is not during fighting in a densely populated area such as the Gaza Strip. According to the COIs report, the massive harm to the civilian population during the fighting cannot be justified in any way, and international humanitarian law (IHL) cannot be interpreted in such a way that would make this harm lawful.
in full: http://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/20150630_un_report_on_gaza
AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)bring harm and destruction of that which might have one day become our only saving grace...
I do t see much hope for our species, in the end we were to be our brothers and sisters keeper not his or her never ending enemy...
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)sabbat hunter
(6,825 posts)by the UNHRC blames Israel more than the terrorists. Surprise surprise.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Take your pick of just about any human rights group and you'll see a pretty clear picture.
Actually, Amnesty International is taking some heat for not going far enough..I believe B'tselem has
as usual made clear determinations to the conduct of all involved as well as PHR.
Surprise surprise they're overlooked? Not me.
Mosby
(16,168 posts)Gaza is their battlefield and civilians their cover.