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Israeli, Palestinian artillery violates law
A US-based human rights group said on Sunday that Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli artillery strikes showed appalling disregard for civilian life and urged both sides to learn lessons from two years of bloodshed.In a report released on the eve of a High Court hearing about Israeli military policy allegedly allowing troops to fire closer to civilian areas, Human Rights Watch examined the use of rockets and artillery following Israels withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in September 2005. It said Israel reportedly reduced the safety zone between artillery targets and civilian areas from 300 to 100 metres (yards) in April 2006. Human Rights Watch found that all fatalities and all but eight injuries from artillery fire between September 2005 and May 2007, which Israel claimed was in self-defence, occurred after this change in policy, its report said. Examining the conflict between the two sides, the report said: From September 2005 to May 2007, Palestinian armed groups fired almost 2,700 locally made rockets toward Israel. They killed four and injured 75 Israeli civilians. The rockets, notoriously inaccurate, also caused at least 23 Palestinian casualties when they fell short of the border, said the report, which also said groups placed launchers deliberately close to civilian areas. From September 2005 through May 2007, the IDF fired more than 14,600 155mm artillery shells into Gaza. Shells fired close to populated areas killed 59 people and wounded 270, most if not all of them civilians, said the group. It added that Israel had not fired artillery into Gaza since an attack on November 8, 2006 killed 23 Palestinian civilians. Despite its moratorium, the IDF says that it still considers artillery fire a legitimate response to Palestinian rocket attacks subject to the limitations of international law. Tit-for-tat abuses cant be justified by arguing that the other side violated the law first: the laws of war are meant to protect civilians from harm, whatever the reason, said Joe Stork, deputy director of the groups Middle East division. Otherwise, the cycle of violence spirals out of control, as happened in Gaza and Israel. Posted by: Fred 2007-07-02 |
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