Human Rights Watch - Hamas Firing Rockets on Civilians
From Human Rights Watch - A review (http://www.hrw.org/en/node/10911/section/3)
Palestinian Rocket Attacks
From September 2005 through May 2007, Palestinian armed groups fired almost 2,700 rockets into Israel, killing 4 Israeli civilians, and injuring 75 civilians and at least 9 soldiers, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) (see Appendices III-V for casualty and weapons numbers). Two of those deaths occurred in the last two weeks of May 2007. An additional six civilians died in rocket attacks from mid-2004 through August 2005. Palestinian rockets have also killed at least two and injured at least 21 Palestinian civilians when they landed short of the Israeli border. The rockets, made in Gaza and generically known as "Qassams" after the name of the armed wing of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, are highly inaccurate and cannot be directed at a specific target.
Communities in the western Negev in Israel, in particular the city of Sderot, have suffered from these attacks. The 10 Israeli civilians killed by Palestinian rocket attacks since mid-2004 range from 2 to 57 in age and include four children. The attacks also have inflicted property damage and created a pervasive climate of fear in affected Israeli communities. Eshel Margalit of Moshav Nativ Ha'asara, for example, told Human Rights Watch how his daughter narrowly escaped becoming a victim of a rocket attack. Margalit said when a siren went off warning of an incoming rocket, his daughter was upstairs in the family study working on the computer: "I yelled to her but she was not eager to leave the computer, she was 18, you know," Margalit said. "She came down and we were running to the secure room when the Qassam hit the house." The rocket penetrated the roof and exploded in the study. "We went up, opened the door, and saw the room was destroyed. When my daughter realized what could have happened she burst into tears The Qassams have changed our lives. There is a lot more stress and anxiety."[2]
Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Aqsa Brigades, and the Popular Resistance Committees have all claimed responsibility for firing rockets into Israel, though Hamas largely complied with self-imposed halts to such attacks between February and June 2006 and between November 2006 and late April 2007. These groups have justified their attacks as actions of self-defense and reprisals for Israel's actions against the Palestinians. A typical statement after a strike declares that it is a response "to the crimes of occupation against our children, women, and elderly."[3]
The Palestinian rocket attacks violate international humanitarian law, also known as the laws of war, which governs the conduct of the parties during armed conflict. Where an attack on a military target is intended and that target is in or near a civilian area, the Palestinian rocket attacks are indiscriminate because they cannot distinguish between military targets and civilians. Where there is no intended military target and the rockets are launched into a civilian area, they constitute deliberate attacks against civilians. Given that the rocket attacks have inflicted very little damage on Israeli military assets, their primary purpose seems to be to kill civilians or at least to spread terror among the Israeli civilian population, both of which IHL prohibits.
Even assuming the rocket attacks were intended as reprisal for Israeli attacks that kill and injure civilians, as Palestinian groups often claimed, they still are unlawful under international humanitarian law. The law governing reprisals-defined as otherwise unlawful actions that are considered lawful when used as an enforcement measure in reaction to an adversary's unlawful acts[4]-does not permit direct or indiscriminate attacks on civilians, in part for reasons that these rocket-artillery exchanges demonstrate: even attacks ostensibly launched as reprisals often spur counterattacks by the other side, yielding an endless cycle of civilian injury and death. As the leading treaty in this area provides, one side's targeting of civilians or civilian objects can never justify like targeting by the other side.[5]
Palestinian armed groups also at times endanger civilians by placing their rocket launchers near residential areas in Gaza. The IDF claims that over the course of 2006 Palestinian armed groups moved their launchers increasingly close to residential areas, presumably because return IDF artillery fire had made open fields a less attractive military option. Human Rights Watch's interviews provide evidence that in at least one locale Palestinian groups fired or tried to launch rockets from within 100 meters of populated apartment buildings. While Gaza is densely populated, and open areas are relatively scarce, combatants still have an obligation to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians and this includes avoiding placing launchers within or firing from close proximity to populated areas.
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There is damage on both sides & I feel sorry for the Israeli & Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire. My heart goes out to both of them.
This is a very fine post. Indeed no one wins and everyone suffer. The deaths are horrible, but I tend to forget the disruption of lives caused by the sheer damage inflicted on infrastructure and housing. The loss of personal belongings, cherished memorabilia...anger is fostered and the journey of revenge continues on both sides.
RT
Kudos for ripping away the fog of lies that are spread on this blog by supporters of Palestinian murderers. Israel, because of the hatred of Jews, is in a catch 22 situation. They damn their own people by allowing Palestinian murderers to continue to murder them and when the defend themselves, they are damned by supporters of the murderers. It is an upside down world that we live in.
BB: Right on. I think we are getting somewhere.
I think the Israelis are using excessive force, but I also think Hamas dragged them into it.
Until both sides can come to the agreement that they will not allow violence upon the other from within their borders, its going to continue.
As for the "occupation", this is disputed and it should be dealt with at the peace table, not with rockets from either side.
R_T: I agree that things should be worked out at a peace table rather than with rockets. I believe we've arrived at a point of Hatfield & McCoys. I hate so say it.... but I completely agree with your last comment. (Except I think it IS an occupation) Otherwise... Right on.
RT - Thank you for your post. I feel like we are all starting to get somewhere at this discussion. It was never intended, on my part, to minimize the damage and casualties on the part of Israel. I just can't forget the people of Palestine, who have been through Hell. I can remember them being pushed out 25 years or so ago. It was bad then. They are not treated as equals among the people of that area and we should all know what it does to the human psyche to be diminished by others with an attitude of superiority and the actions that go with that attitude. I don't want the Palestinians to give up hope. They should know that the world cares. It is too bad they have been cut off from the outside media.
I agree with BB in that I am definitely against the very real occupation of Gaza by the Israeli government.
R-T noted: "Palestinian armed groups fired almost 2,700 rockets into Israel, killing 4 Israeli civilians."
This from the Toronto Star (10Jan09):
"The toll of Palestinian dead after the first two weeks of bloodshed neared 800, as many as half of them civilians, and more than 25 per cent of those children. Three Israeli soldiers were wounded, none seriously. Conditions for people in Gaza continue to deteriorate with 1 million now without electricity and 750,000 without access to running water. In Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for a war crimes investigation into Israel's role following an incident last week that claimed the lives of at least 30 Palestinian civilians. They were killed when Israeli soldiers shelled the house where they were staying, after the Israelis had herded them in..."
Total:
Palestine = 800 killed.
Israel = 4 killed.
This is self-defense?
2700 rockets.
SepTick; I acknowledge that Israel is using massive, and overly extensive force.
On the other hand, Hamas does not seem to be too concerned about this and are still firing rockets.
This seems to be the Hamas strategy. Incite a fight, then push your women and children in front of the bombs, then televise the damage and feign concern for those women and children.
If Hamas said "OK, no more rockets. We are done. We will stop. Here is all of our rockets" do you believe that Israel would continue?
Follow the money.
What does Israel hope to gain by invading Gaza? Officially, Israel is defending itself from the almost harmless rockets launched into Israel by Hamas. The Israeli defense minister says that it will be a fight to the finish, implying that they want to physically finish off Hamas for killing four Israelis. In Lebanon, the IDF objective was to finish off Hezbollah. But what happened was quite the reverse, Hezbollah emerged wounded but a hero in the eyes of the Arab world, strengthening its position in Lebanon, while the IDF remained the bullies of the middle east.
So what is Israel's game this time - in Gaza?
Two factors that are not well known are natural gas and the upcoming Israeli Knesset elections.
Back in 1999, BG International (a British natural gas exploration, production, storage, transportation and distribution conglomerate) discovered a huge deposit of natural gas in the sea along the Gaza coast. This Gaza Marine Gas Field contains 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas valued at over $4 billion.
Under the 1993 Oslo peace accords which created Gaza, Israel has security control over the air and water around Gaza, so Israel negotiated a deal with BG Intl. to provide it access to Gaza marine gas at cheap rates.
Before the deal could go through, Hamas unexpectedly won the 2006 election, with 74 seats to the ruling-Fatah's 45, providing Hamas with a majority of the 132 available seats and the ability to form a majority government, which it did. This sparked off a bitter power struggle between Hamas and the pro-west Fatah. Ultimately, the Palestinian Authority split in 2007 with Hamas taking control of Gaza, and Fatah taking control of the West Bank.
One of the first things that Hamas did after getting elected was to declare that the natural gas deal between Israel and BG would have to be renegotiated with the new Hamas government.
Israel immediately blockaded Gaza and prevented water, food and medicine from reaching the Gazans. Crammed into about 360 sq km, 1.5 million Gazans watched their infrastructure and lives crumble. To get food and medicines the Gazans even dug tunnels under the Israeli barriers and once even broke through on the Egyptian side. But Israeli and Egyptian soldiers collapsed the tunnels.
It appears that the current Israeli devastation of Gaza is designed to turn the Gazans against Hamas, thus paving the way for a more pliable (pro-western, pro-BG) administration, so that Israel's gas deal can still go through.
Reports from Israel indicate that preparations for the invasion of Gaza were well underway months ago, with the ceasefire offered by Israel being a phony ploy to lull Hamas.
In addition, the coming Israeli elections are predicted to offer a tough challenge to the Kadima Party government of Ehud Olmert - - mounted by the hawkish Likud Party led by Benjamin Netahnyu. Even within Kadima, Olmert is facing a challenge from foreign minister Tzipi Livni. Olmert has come under much criticism for his botched invasion of Lebanon in 2006 and many see the Gaza attack as an attempt by Olmert to redeem his position within Israel and cash in big on the Gaza Marine Gas Field.
R_T:
I learned some interesting things from your really good post. Thanks.
Jim Croce sang it best, you don't spit into the wing, tug on Superman's cape - you don't mess around with Jim (Israel) Hamas has done just that, they tugged @ Superman's cape and gotten the retaliation they should have predicted and expected.
If you don't know Jim Croce, then you may know this: If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind.
Is the Israeli response disproportionate-most certainly. There is far too much suffering and this could have been avoided.
Sincerely,
Robert Capp
Skeptic,
Your "Follow the Money" post was very informative, thank you. What is your source for this post? I'd like to read it and any links that it may provide,
Thanks again,
Robert Capp
If you do a google search on Gaza Marine Gas Field you will see that everyone follows the story except , of course, the US mainstream media. Another reason why the Americans are so sadly misinformed...
bcapp - I could be wrong, but didn't Jim Croce sing "spit into the wind" and not "into the wing?"
The problem in Gaza seems to be that Israel the protector makes life a living hell for the Palestinian refugee families, ratcheting down until the Palestinians are forced to hit back. When they finally do, it becomes Israel's excuse to obliterate as many of them as possible. If I had to endure the degree of suffering inflicted by Israel, I'd throw bombs too. Wouldn't you?
Skeptic,
Yes, it was Spit into the "wind", tug on Superman's cape, take the mask off the Lone Ranger, and you mess around with Jim.
Thanks for the correction.
Robert Capp
momof11- I just Googled "Gaza Marine Gas Field." I came up with 94,300 hits, just on Google, just in English alone.
There are, of course, lots of other search engines and lots of other languages. There is no reason to be uninformed if you can access the Internet. Biased news and a lack of investigative reporting may be why the American news media - especially printed newspapers - are dying a long, slow death. Who wants to pay money to read corporate propaganda from embedded bureau bums?
JERUSALEM, Jan 10 (Reuters) - ...Human Rights Watch said in a statement that its researchers in Israel observed multiple air-bursts on Jan. 9 and Jan. 10 of artillery-fired White Phosphorus near the city of Gaza and the Jabalya refugee camp. (see video clips on YouTube)
The group said Israel appeared to be using White Phosphorus to hide military operations.
" White Phosphorus has a significant, incidental, incendiary effect that can severely burn people and set animals, structures, fields, and other civilian objects in the vicinity on fire. The potential for harm to civilians is magnified by Gaza's high population density, among the highest in the world," Human Rights Watch said.
It called on Israel to stop the practice. An Israeli army spokesman had no comment.
____
Israel's use of WP has been confirmed by other sources, including a Norwegian doctor and a military analyst for Jane's.
More than 50 people with WP burns were taken into Nasser Hospital in the southern town of Khan Yunis, in what the hospital director said was a massive case of exposure to white phosphorus. Doctors from Dubai confirm.
White phosphorus (or "Willie Peter") is a solid, waxy man-made chemical which ignites spontaneously in air and produces intense heat, bright light and thick pillars of white smoke.
If particles of ignited white phosphorus land on a person's skin, they will continue to burn right through flesh and onto the bone. Toxic phosphoric acid can also be released into wounds, risking phosphorus poisoning. Skin burns must be immediately immersed in water or covered with wet cloths to prevent re-combustion until the particles can be removed by digging them from the wounds. Exposure to white phosphorus smoke in the air can also cause liver, kidney, heart, lung or bone damage and even death. Breathing in WP smoke causes the throat and lungs to blister until the victim's air passages fill with liquid and suffocate the victim, with the aerosolized phosphorus continuing to burn them from the inside. WP is nasty, truly horrifying stuff.
WP is covered by Protocol III of the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons, which prohibits its use as an incendiary weapon against civilian populations or in air attacks against enemy forces in civilian areas.
On the white phosphorous..most likely it was deployed in a canister hanging from a parachute..used to light up an area for surveillance purposes.
Its designed to stay in the canister during ignition, but may spurt small bits (smaller than a grain of rice) into the air as it burns. If so, it falls hundreds of feet, burning as it falls, and typically goes out before contact with the ground.
Typically, you look up and if you see a hot white speck falling toward you, you step to the side. Because of its intense heat and low mass, its terminal velocity is usually on the order of only a dozen feet per second.
Many US military guys have experienced exercises under WP and occasionally been hit by it.
Its not going to burn to the bone unless you get extremely unfortunate or the canister lands on you.
Oh..and its used in fireworks all of the time. As I said, it usually burns out long before it would hit the ground.