Israel violates rules of war in bombing Gaza homes: rights group

An Israeli rights group on Wednesday accused Israel's government of employing a deliberate policy of launching air strikes on residential buildings during the war in July and August in Gaza, and violating the rules of war in some cases.

A report by the B'Tselem organization called the strikes "one of the appalling hallmarks of the fighting in Gaza." The 50-day-long war cost the lives of more than 2,200 Palestinians.

An in-depth investigation of 70 raids on residential homes found that a total of 606 Palestinians were killed in these attacks, the majority of whom took no part in the fighting, with more than 70 percent of the casualties were either under 18, over 60 or women.

UN figures also show that about 70 percent of the Palestinian casualties were civilians.

The war caused casualties also to the Israeli side, claiming the lives of 73 people, all but six were soldiers.

Last week, B'Tselem sent the report to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but the group said it had not yet received a response.

The group said the lethal consequences of these raids were not accidental but "the result of a policy formulated by government officials and the senior military command."

B'Tselem questioned Israel's claims that it made every possible effort to avoid harming civilians, saying the high death toll of its policy became evident right in the beginning of the war.

"Even if the Israeli cabinet thought this policy would bring an end to attacks on Israeli communities, it should not have been implemented it because of its foreseeable, horrifying consequences as well as because of the black flag of illegality flying over it," the group said.

The 49-page-long report comes at a sensitive time for Israel, following the announcement this month that the International Criminal Court will launch a preliminary probe into possible war crimes committed against the Palestinians.

The Israeli military denied B'tselem's accusations on targeting residential buildings, insisting it adhered to international law.

"The Israel Defense Force (IDF) is fully committed to its international law obligations," it said in a statement.

"As such, in accordance with the principle of distinction, attacks were only directed at residential buildings where they became legitimate military targets, or when a person constituting a legitimate military target was in the structure. The high number of ostensibly residential structures attacked point not to an illegal punitive policy of the IDF but rather to the widespread and systematic unlawful use made of such structures by the terror organizations in Gaza." Endit