Gaza under microscope

 

 

Could attacks carried out against Palestinians by Israeli security forces during the pounding of Gaza have come back to haunt it? They are at the moment facing serious charges of potentially embarrassing human right violations from a set of credible international organisations. Former Hague court adjudicator Richard Goldstone opened the week by gathering proof in Gaza against Israel on behalf of the UN Human Rights Council. Subsequently, Geneva-based human rights organisation, Gisha, condemned Israel for not permitting panic-stricken Palestinians to exit the Gaza Strip while the International Red Cross flayed Israel for the sustained cordon.

If that was not enough, an Amnesty International testimony this week said Israel wreaked "wanton destruction" in the Gaza Strip in assaults that time and again beleaguered Palestinian civilians. It also indicted Israeli forces of war crimes, insisting they took children as human shields. Israel's use of Flechette rounds — artillery shells that blow up to launch hundreds of steel darts — and white phosphorous shells in densely populated areas also came under fire.

Similarly missile-firing Israeli drones killed no less than 29 Palestinian civilians during the Gaza assault, Human Rights Watch reported. The 39-page report citing instances of six alleged strikes by remote-controlled aircraft, went on to elaborate that despite having advanced surveillance equipment, drone operators failed to exercise proper caution "as required by the laws of war" in confirming that their targets were combatants. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) pulled up Israel for stopping movement of construction supplies and auxiliary parts essential to contain damages resulting from the invasion. Ramzi Kysia, an expert on war crime, told TSI: “Israel's two-year cordon of Gaza constrained critical provisions such as food, medicine and fuel to bare subsistence levels. It’s ironic how the western media ignores it”. The charges have been corroborated by Richard Falk, the Jewish United Nations’ special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Meanwhile, 19 activists of the Free Gaza Movement were being held in Israel in two days after the Israeli Navy apprehended their boat off the coast of Gaza. A previous United States delegate, Cynthia McKinney, and an Irish peace campaigner and Nobel laureate, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, were amongst those detained. Meanwhile, Isreal’s defence establishment is fretful at escalating legal drives in foreign courts that intend to stop Israel from using force against Hamas and Hezbollah. Shaken by four unflattering and damning reports in a single week, there is marked nervousness among higher-ranking defence executives about this newly emerging `legal front’. Solicitors and jurists in numerous countries – a mix of Arabs and Jews - are using official means to get at Tel Aviv. It will be interesting to see how Israel tackles this newly-emerging threat.