moqawama

2008/12/29

Gaza under attack: over 300 killed and 1,400 injured


[RAMALLAH, 29 December 2008] – Latest media and NGO reports suggest that the death toll in Gaza since the attacks commenced on Saturday has risen to at least 310, and that the number of people injured could be as high as 1,400, of which 180 are in a critical condition. Present indications are that 30 children have been killed and 150 injured, many critically.

DCI-Palestine fieldworkers are currently doing their best to investigate incidents involving child casualties, which are likely to rise as children represent 56 per cent of the population in Gaza.

To make matters worse the Gaza-based organisation Al-Mezan reports that the first strike "coincided with the change in schools' shifts when tens of thousands of schoolchildren were on their way from or to school" [Al-Mezan, 28 December 2008]. This fact should reasonably have been known to those who planned and carried out the attack. In a further sign of Israel’s reckless disregard for its obligations as Occupying Power and the requirements of the laws of war, seven students from an UNRWA school died in an Israeli air strike while they were waiting for a bus to take them home.

Although official Israeli spokespersons have repeatedly stated during the course of the last two days that the airstrikes are targeting Hamas infrastructure, current estimates are that many civilians have been killed and injured. Further, there is no suggestion that the policemen that were targeted are those responsible for firing rockets into Israel.

The latest attack on Gaza must be viewed in context. Israel imposed a harsh blockade on Gaza in June 2007 precipitating a humanitarian disaster. The stranglehold on the population of 1.5 million was further tightened on 5 November 2008. The situation has since deteriorated to the point where UNRWA is no longer able to distribute food in Gaza to 750,000 refugees. Further, Israel previously launched a devastating full scale military offensive into Gaza in February and March 2008, in an operation the Israeli authorities codenamed ‘Warm Winter’. That operation killed 120 people, including 33 children.

Under well established principles of international law, Israel is not permitted to collectively punish the entire civilian population for the actions of a few militants. Further, it is a well established principle of international law that any military response must be proportionate. Since January 2008, around four Israeli civilians have been killed by rocket fire from Gaza, two of those deaths occurring after Israel launched its most recent attack on Saturday. It is not in question that the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israeli civilian areas is illegal. However, during the same period, approximately 700 Gazans have been killed in Israeli attacks, a ratio of 175:1.

Latest reports indicate that Israel is now preparing for a ground offensive into the densely populated Gaza Strip that will inevitably involve high civilian casualties. An Israeli military spokesperson told the BBC yesterday that this latest military operation could be lengthy, and would only come to an end when the rocket fire from Gaza was "minimised"; this is to be determined through operational assessments and suggests that Israel has no immediate intention of ending the carnage.

DCI-Palestine wishes to remind the international community and Israel that personal criminal responsibility attaches to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and that there is no time limitation on when these prosecutions may be initiated. All parties to the Convention have a legal obligation to prosecute such offences.

This year marks the 41st anniversary of Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

DCI-Palestine calls upon:

The UN Security Council to call a second emergency session to:


Implement effective measures in order to ensure an immediate cessation of the current violence; and:

Implementation of effective measures to compel Israel to comply with previous resolutions of the Security Council and end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

EU institutions and member states to make effective use of the European Union Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict (2003, 15634/03) and European Union Guidelines on promoting compliance with international humanitarian law (2005/C 327/04) to ensure Israel complies with international child protection standards and international humanitarian law, and consider the adoption of immediate restrictive measures and sanctions, as well as cessation of all upgrade dialogue with Israel.

The High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to fulfill their obligation under common Article 1 to ensure respect for the provisions of the Conventions, taking appropriate measures to compel Israel to abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law, in particular placing pivotal importance on the respect and protection of civilians from the effects of the hostilities.