Rocket attacks launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel’s South amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch said.
In a report issued Wednesday, the group said the indiscriminate nature of the rockets, the dense civilian population in the general area of where the rockets are aimed, and statements from the leadership of Gaza’s Hamas rulers and other groups make it clear that civilians are targeted.
Additionally, it said, effective Israeli defenses, including early warning systems, that have minimized the impact of the rockets do not mitigate the crimes.
“The repeated attacks have, over months and even years, taken a psychological toll on the population in areas close to Gaza,” the report said.
It said “the laws of war” prohibit attacks whose “primary purpose is to spread terror among the civilian population. Because of the rocket attacks, thousands of people have moved away from frequently targeted areas such as Sderot municipality.”
Israel’s much more forceful response was not pertinent to whether the attacks constituted war crimes, the report said.
“The purpose of the laws of war is not to create parity between parties to a conflict, or to assess their violations in light of their relevant capacities, but to minimize the harm to the civilian population,” Human Rights Watch said.
The group also has described Israeli actions during January’s Gaza Operation Cast Lead as war crimes. Israel launched the 3 1/2-week-old operation in a bid to halt rocket attacks from Gaza.
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It looks like Human Rights Watch does criticize Hamas.
We are grudgingly stating that Hamas created war crimes for proactical reasons. When Sarah leah Winston tried to solicit funds from the Saudis, she rightfully pointed out that our raison d'etre is to find a final solution to the israeli problem. Once Israel is eliminated, we can focus on less egregious human rights violations like Darfur, Congo, Sri Lanka, Tibet, etc. Unfortunately, the Saudis did not contribute as much as we had hoped, so in order not to offend our left wing donors in NYC and San francisco, we offered a perfunctory condemnation of Hamas. This helped prevent defections from our core donors. Make no mistake about it-the creation of israel was the worst human rights abuse in ALL of history, and we are working as much as possible to end it, but our condemnation of Hamas is tactical and not sincere.
Bad Hamas, bad, bad!
Go stand in the corner!
There, just solved that problem.
The Forward might want to delete that message posted under a fake name.
pal'ns are, just like partizani were, morally and legally obligated to militarily resist their occupation. russians [with or w.o. cult] appear as land robbers, therefore are a legit targets and especially in view that their children cld be moved to safe areas. unlike gazan children who were, as far as reports go, prevented from leaving gazan twns and cities. and furthermore the gazan raid did not change the telos. The raid had been a solely tactical act and 'jews', i believe, knew that. i conclude firmly that striking own land with the qassams was morally an dlegally the right thing to. alas, strategically, it had been a vain venture. In any case, for long time now, i urge pal'ns not to resist militarily! tnx
Its too bad when the Forward deletes pro-Israel comments and retains those of the anti-Semites. This "article" is an attempt to "whitewash" an enemy NGO. Consider the response:
.....
NGO Monitor: 6 Questions on HRW’s Gaza Rockets Report
August 6, 2009
(Jerusalem) – Jerusalem based research organization NGO Monitor has reviewed .Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) report (“Rockets From Gaza”) on Hamas’ rocket fire on Israel’s civilian population.
While the report clearly finds Hamas guilty of war crimes and acknowledges “the psychological toll of years of rocket attacks” on Israelis, a number of questions need to be addressed:
1. Why did it take HRW 6 months to issue a report that covers no new ground and largely repeats the International Crisis Group’s report of April 2009? In the interval, HRW issued two publications condemning Israel. NGO Monitor’s detailed analysis of HRW’s report on Israel’s use of drones can be found here (http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/absolutely_wrong_analysis_of_hrw_drone_report)
2. Why does HRW perpetuate the “balance” between terrorist groups and their targets? (“Whether it is Hamas’ claims of the ‘right to resist occupation’ or Israel’s of the right ‘to combat terror’, the reasons for engaging in armed conflict do not permit a party to ignore its legal obligations in the way it conducts hostilities.”)
3 Why did HRW fail to condemn Hamas for extensive use of human shields? What is the basis for the claim that Hamas “did not…force civilians to remain in areas in close proximity to rocket launching sites”?
4. Why is Israel absurdly blamed for Hamas’ rocket fire from populated areas? According to HRW, Hamas “redeployed from more open and outlying regions – many of which were…controlled by Israeli ground forces…into densely populated urban areas”. In other words, Israel’s operation against the rocket fire is blamed for the Hamas violations of the laws of war. And numerous rocket attacks from these same urban areas – long before the IDF operation - is not mentioned.
5. Why is there no effort to uncover details of weapons smuggling into Gaza, and no mention of Iran? When HRW published speculative allegations on Israel’s use of drones and white phosphorous, they emphasized US military assistance.
6. Why does HRW continue to falsify the history in order to attack Israel? This report blames Israel for the end of the ceasefire -- “These attacks virtually stopped…but resumed after Israeli forces killed six Palestinian fighters…on November 4, 2008”. This version ignores the fact that Israel was responding to tunnels being completed and suggestions of another kidnapping attempt.
NGO Monitor’s President Prof Gerald Steinberg suggested some answers: “While containing no new information, this report might have had an impact if HRW published it six months ago. The fact that it is only now on their agenda exposes their biased priorities. The timing might indicate HRW's effort to use this report to divert attention from the Saudi fundraising controversy, and as a fig leaf to cover the disproportionate focus on Israel.
On the substance, HRW failed to indict Hamas for turning the entire Gaza population into one massive human shield, and ‘researchers’ need to explain why they did not investigate the sources of the ‘smuggled’ rockets or to mention Iran. In contrast, when condemning Israel on a very thin factual foundation, HRW officials consistently criticize the American security relationship and arms transfers”.
salient facts prove that pal'ns are innocent: 1 christian lands mostly and strongly antimuslim and antipalestinian gives part of palestine to dozens of nationalities; connected to each other solely by talmudic cult.
2 these intruders then start a war because christian lands did not give them enough land but have explicitly said to them, If u can take all of the palestine, that wld be OK; otherwise partition will have to do.
3 the invaders then expel some 800K hated indigenes; destroying numerous villages and murdering thousands of pal'ns.
4 wanting all of palestine and parts of syria and lebanon, 'jews' wage another war in '67.
5 israel ignores numerous UN resolutions and continues bringing in more aliens and 'settling' them on pal'n land. etcetc.
but defenders of all of these crimes almost always begin the history of the conflict from the time qassams began falling on the land robbers; oops, returnees to the holy land.
how's that for denial. And the world is not in mood for it. And 'jews' rant, rage, traduce but muslim heart hardens. actually it is not even muslims who satnd inthe way of a 'jewish' state but solely christo-talmudic world. that is the only 'jewish' enemy worth mentioning or that matters. tnx
Whatever the HRW had commented, the right of Hamas to fight against the occupier, Israel, should not be denied. It is override the human right matters. Israel has continued bombing the civilian targets (mosque, goverment office, houses, apartment) eventhought they are not at war with Hamas. Rockets fired agaisnt Israel is a rightful retaliation against the Israel occupation and invasion on the Palestanian territory. The cilivians of Israel had voted the goverment to rule Israel. As such, Israel civilians also should be partly responsible to have the terrorist government, Israel, and therefore they are the right target of Hamas. Israel also jailed the Palestanian civilians for years without trials. The crime of Israel is the crime on humanity. Therefore the opinion of HRW is wrong.