Criticism by international watchdog groups over the increasing
death toll in Gaza mounted this week as the first legal actions inside Israel
were launched accusing the army of intentionally harming the enclave’s civilian
population.
The petitions – over attacks on medical personnel and the
shelling of United Nations schools in Gaza – follow statements by senior Israeli
commanders that they have been using heavy firepower to protect soldiers during
their advance on built-up areas. “We are very violent,” one told Israeli media.
There is also growing evidence that Israeli forces have been
firing phosphorus shells over densely populated areas in a move that risks
violating international law by inflicting burns on civilians.
The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, meanwhile, called
the events in Gaza a “new Nakba”, referring to the catastrophe that dispossessed
the Palestinians in 1948. The Palestinian Authority 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
co-ordinates 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.
Mr al Sanaa said the petition would name the prime minister, Ehud
Olmert, the foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, and Ehud Barak, the defence minister,
as the responsible parties. “Israel needs to decide whether it wants to be a
terrorist organisation like Hamas or respect international law,” he said.
A further petition has been launched by eight Israeli human
rights groups, demanding that Israel’s Supreme Court ban the army from targeting
ambulances and medical personnel.
The petition cites a large number of cases in which Israel has
fired on ambulances, arguing that as a result medics have been unable to treat
the wounded or transport them to hospital.
Palestinian medics said 21 of their staff have been killed by
Israeli fire and many more wounded, according to reports on Al Jazeera TV. The
Al Durra hospital in Gaza City was hit on Tuesday, and a day later three mobile
clinics run by a Danish charity, DanChurchAid, were destroyed.
The International Committee of the Red Cross dropped its usual
diplomatic language this week in denouncing Israel’s refusal to allow medical
teams to tend the wounded.
During a three-hour pause in the fighting on Wednesday rescuers
managed to reach the Zaytoun neighbourhood, south-east of Gaza City, that was
extensively bombed at the start of the week.
Four children were found close to starvation alongside 15 bodies,
including those of their mothers. Many other civilians were found dead in the
area, and others are believed still to be in hiding. Israeli tanks were
stationed nearby the destroyed buildings during the whole period.
Pierre Wettach, a Red Cross spokesman, called Israel’s delay in
allowing a medical evacuation “shocking” and “unacceptable”. He added: “The
Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the
wounded.”
Physicians for Human Rights in Israel added its voice,
criticising the Israeli authorities for repeatedly ignoring requests to move
seriously wounded civilians.
The UN suspended its aid operations on Thursday after two of its
drivers were killed and others wounded by Israeli fire directed at one of its
relief convoys during another three-hour ceasefire.
John Ging, head of the UN relief agency in Gaza, said: “They were
co-ordinating their movements with the Israelis, as they always do, only to find
themselves being fired at from the ground troops.”
Palestinian sources and international observers warned that the
death toll among civilians is rising rapidly as Israel’s ground invasion pushes
deeper into Gaza.
Al Haq, a Palestinian legal rights group, warned that 80 per cent
of the more than 750 Palestinians killed in the fighting so far have been
civilians. According to figures cited by the World Health Organisation, at least
40 per cent 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
levelled 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.”
Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth,
Israel. His latest books are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran
and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing
Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His website is
www.jkcook.net.
A version of this article originally appeared in The National (www.thenational.ae
), published in Abu Dhabi.
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