GAZA CITY: New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a reported on Thursday that Israeli soldiers killed 11 Palestinian civilians, including five women and four children, waving white flags during Israeli’s war on Gaza early this year. The firings in seven separate attacks wounded eight others.
“The Israeli military should conduct thorough, credible investigations into these deaths to tackle the prevailing culture of impunity,” HRW said in the 63-page report.
It pointed out that the 11 were only a small fraction of the total death toll in the December-January Israeli offensive. Palestinian medics and human rights groups say more than 1,300 Palestinians were killed, including more than 400 children under 16.
“However, these (11) deaths stand out because the civilians were in groups waving a white cloth, T-shirt or scarf, and no Palestinian fighters were in the area at the time,” HRW said. “Under the laws of war, individuals who carry out or order deliberate attacks on civilians are responsible for war crimes.”
The report said that the Israeli Army in each case failed to take “feasible precautions” to distinguish between civilians and armed fighters prior to attacking. In some cases, fire was opened on civilians with premeditated intent, the report added.
It cited a case in which two women and thee children were standing in front of their home after a soldier ordered them out. At least three of them were holding pieces of white cloth when a soldier opened fire, killing two girls aged two and seven and wounding the third girl and their grandmother.
“We spent seven to nine minutes waving the flags at them,” the grandmother, who was shot twice, was quoted as saying. “And suddenly they opened fire and the girls fell to the ground.”
In five of the seven incidents detailed in the report, Israeli soldiers shot at civilians who were walking down the street with white flags, trying to leave areas of fighting. Reacting to the report, the Israeli military said its soldiers were obligated to avoid harming anyone waving a white flag but that in some cases Hamas fighters had used civilians with white flags for cover.
“Any person who displays a white flag in this way acts illegally, does not enjoy protection from retaliatory action and endangers nearby civilian populations,” the military said. The military said last month it was investigating incidents in which soldiers allegedly killed civilians holding white flags, but HRW charged: “Israel’s poor record on investigations makes objective probes unlikely. Field investigations typically consist of asking soldiers to question other soldiers, without seeking or considering testimony from external witnesses, and taking exculpatory claims of soldiers at face value.”
Earlier this month, HRW published a report on the Gaza war in which it said rocket attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian groups against Israel civilians amounted to war crimes.
— With input from agencies
