Portions below; whole thing at Electronic Intifada, here: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10153.shtmlEven the Palestinian Authority is beginning to notice!
Appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, meanwhile, called the events in Gaza a "new Nakba," referring to the catastrophe that dispossessed the Palestinians in 1948. The PA revealed that it was planning to seek the prosecution of Israel's leaders for war crimes in the international courts.
The legal challenges follow a wave of Israeli attacks on schools, universities, mosques, hospitals and ambulances in the past few days. The army claims the attacks are justified because the sites are being used by Hamas fighters.
A petition to the Israeli courts was announced on Wednesday by Taleb al-Sanaa, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament, over the shelling on Tuesday of a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp that killed at least 40 Palestinians sheltering there.
UN officials, noting that they had passed on the school's GPS coordinates to Israel and that it was clearly marked with a UN flag, insisted that only civilians had sought refuge at the school. The UN has demanded an investigation.
*******
Al Haq, a Palestinian legal rights group, warned that 80 percent of more than 750 Palestinians killed in the fighting so far have been civilians. According to figures cited by the World Health Organization, at least 40 percent have been children. Another 3,000 Gazans have been wounded.
Israeli commanders were reported in the Israeli media to be unsurprised by the heavy toll on civilians of their latest actions, saying their priority was to protect soldiers.
"For us, being cautious means being aggressive," one told the Haaretz newspaper. "From the minute we entered, we've acted like we're at war. That creates enormous damage on the ground."
The newspaper said the government had taken into account the likely high number of Palestinian civilian casualties when it approved the ground operation a week ago.
Another soldier, identified as Lt Col Amir, told Israeli TV on Wednesday: "We are very violent. We are not shying away from any method of preventing casualties among our troops."
Among the dubious tactics the army appears to be resorting to is use of white phosphorus shells, which burn intensely on exposure to air creating the firework-type explosions characteristic of Israel's shelling of Gaza.
Although the shells produce dense clouds of smoke to cover military operations, they also cause severe burns on contact with skin.
Photographs of pale blue artillery shells lined up by tanks stationed on the edge of Gaza have been identified as American-made phosphorus munitions. Neil Gibson, a missiles expert for Jane's, told The London Times that the shells were an "improved model" that burned for up to 10 minutes.
Although such shells are allowed when used solely as a smoke screen, they are banned as a chemical weapon if used as an anti-personnel munition. Palestinian and international medics in Gaza have reported large numbers of burns victims with injuries difficult to treat.
Yesterday, Amnesty International also accused Israeli soldiers of using Palestinian civilians as human shields -- a charge Israel has repeatedly leveled against Hamas.
Malcolm Smart, a spokesman, said: "Israeli soldiers have entered and taken up positions in a number of Palestinian homes, forcing families to stay in a ground-floor room while they use the rest of their house as a military base and sniper position."
No comments:
Post a Comment