Human Rights Watch on Tuesday accused the Israeli military for carrying out attacks against Hamas militant group that “apparently amount to war crimes” during an 11-day war in May.
The International Human Rights organization after investigating three Israeli airstrikes, issued its conclusions that it had killed 62 Palestinian civilians. It said “there were no evident military targets in the vicinity” of the attacks.
The report also accused the Palestinian militants of apparent war crimes, by launching over 4,000 unguided rockets and mortars at Israeli population centres. Such attacks, it said, violate “the prohibition against deliberate or indiscriminate attacks against civilians.”
The report, however, focused on Israeli actions during the fighting, and said it would be issuing a separate report on the actions of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in August.
“Israeli forces carried out attacks in Gaza in May that devastated entire families without any apparent military target nearby,” said Gerry Simpson, associate crisis and conflict director at HRW.
He said Israel’s “consistent unwillingness to seriously investigate the alleged war crimes,” coupled with Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli civilian areas, underscored the importance of an ongoing investigation into both sides by the International Criminal Court, or ICC.
The Israeli military has repeatedly said that its attacks were aimed at military targets in Gaza and took numerous precautions to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for civilian casualties by launching rocket attacks and other military operations inside residential areas.
Total 254 people were killed in Gaza, including at least 67 children and 39 women, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Hamas has admitted the deaths of 80 militants, while Israel has claimed that the number is much higher. 12 civilians, including 2 children, were killed in Israel, along with 1 soldier.
The Human Rights Watch(HRW) report looked into Israeli airstrikes. The most serious airstrike was on May 16, which involved a series of strikes on Al-Wahda Street, a central thoroughfare in downtown Gaza City.
The airstrikes destroyed three apartment buildings and killed a total of 44 civilians, HRW said, including 18 children and 14 women. Twenty-two of the dead were members of a single family named the Al-Kawlaks.
In its investigation, HRW concluded that Israel had used U.S. made GBU-31 precision-guided bombs, and had not warned any of the residents to evacuate the area ahead of time. It also found no evidence of military targets in the area.
“An attack that is not directed at a specific military objective is unlawful,” it wrote.
The investigation also involved, May 10 explosion that killed eight people, including six children, near the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. It said the two adults were civilians.
In a statement Tuesday, the Israeli military said the casualties were caused by errant rocket fire launched by militant groups, not Israeli airstrikes. It released aerial photos of what it said was the launch site, some 7.5 kilometers (4 miles) away, and the landing area.
“This incident demonstrates the blatant disregard for civilian life on the part of terror organizations in the Gaza Strip,” it said.
But based on an analysis of munition remnants and witness accounts, HRW said evidence indicated the weapon had been “a type of guided missile.”
“Human Rights Watch found no evidence of a military target at or near the site of the strike,” it said.
The third attack HRW investigated occurred on May 15, in which an Israeli airstrike destroyed a three-story building in Gaza’s Shati refugee camp. The strike killed 10 people, including two women and eight children.
“HRW investigators determined that the building was hit by a U.S. made guided missile. It said Israel has said that senior Hamas officials were hiding in the building. But the group said no evidence of a military target at or near the site and called for an investigation into whether there was a legitimate military objective and “all feasible precautions” were taken to avoid civilian casualties.”
The May conflict was the fourth war between Israel and Hamas since the Islamic militant group, which opposes Israel’s existence, seized control of Gaza in 2007. Human Rights Watch, other rights groups and U.N. officials have accused both sides of committing war crimes in all of the conflicts.
In Tuesday’s report, it called on the United States to condition security assistance to Israel on it taking “concrete and verifiable actions” to comply with international human rights law and to investigate past abuses.
It also called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to include the recent Gaza war in its ongoing investigation into possible war crimes by Israel and Palestinian militant groups.
“Israel does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction and says it is capable of investigating any potential wrongdoing by its army and that the ICC probe is unfair and politically motivated.”