Tag: Gaza war crimes

Israel

Australia’s disgraceful diversion of responsibility over Gaza war crimes – Pearls and Irritations

Rafah, Gaza. 21st Feb, 2024. Smoke billows in the sky following Israeli bombardment on Alfaroq Mosque in Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, on Thursday, February 22, 2024. Image: Alamy / Ismael Mohamad/UPI Credit: UPI/Alamy Live News

That no sanctions have even been proposed by Australia is dumbfounding given the litany of clearly unjustified acts of war inflicted upon the Palestinians. Since October 7 Netanyahu’s ‘inevitable consequences of war’ has meant:

  • 203 aid workers killed of whom 95% were Palestinian (this figure is higher than the total number of aid worker fatalities that typically occur annually worldwide)
  • More United Nations aid workers have been killed in Gaza than in any other single conflict in the organisation’s 78-year history
  • 102 UNWRA aid workers killed and 27 others wounded
  • UNRWA’s facilities have been hit over 290 times in the hostilities,
  • 374 medical personnel have been killed
  • 120 ambulances have been completely destroyed.
  • 12 of 35 hospitals are only partially functioning
  • 51 of 72 primary medical care facilities are closed.
  • Hospitals and other vital medical infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank have been attacked nearly 600 times
  • 613 people have died within health facilities (of which seven were in the West Bank) and more than 770 have been injured, (WHO)
  • In the West Bank, 286 attacks caused seven deaths and 52 injuries. Some 24 health facilities were affected along with 212 ambulances
  • At least 95 journalists have been killed according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, in what has been the deadliest period for journalists since the NGO began tracking casualties in 1992.

The above translates to an Israeli army for which the rules of engagement are being ignored at will – an army totally out of control.

Source: Australia’s disgraceful diversion of responsibility over Gaza war crimes – Pearls and Irritations

Israel

Two years after Gaza war, not a single war crime indictment | +972 Magazine

The Israeli military’s law enforcement system and its flawed investigative mechanisms appear primarily geared toward protecting the armed forces instead of civilians, thus allowing impunity to prevail. By Muna Haddad Two years after the Israeli military…

Source: Two years after Gaza war, not a single war crime indictment | +972 Magazine

Israel

Middle East Israel PM slams impending war crimes probe Netanyahu calls decision by Hague-based ICC to launch investigation into possible war crimes in Palestine “absurd”.

Netanyahu said Israel is defending itself against what he called Palestinian terrorists

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has slammed the decision by the International Criminal Court to launch a preliminary investigation into possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories, saying it is “absurd”.

Speaking in West Jerusalem on Saturday a day after the decision was made, Netanyahu said: “It’s absurd of the ICC to ignore international law and agreements under which the Palestinians don’t have a state and can only get one through direct negotiations with Israel. The rules of the ICC are clear: No state, no standing, no case.”

The preliminary probe does not mean war crimes were committed but will seek to determine whether preliminary findings merit a full investigation into alleged atrocities, which could result in charges being brought against individuals in either Israeli or Palestinian territories.

Palestine applied to join the ICC in December and has since signed the Rome treaty, the charter that led to the formation of the ICC in 2002. It is due to join the court in April but its membership will be backdated to June 2014, meaning that the court will have jurisdiction to look into last summer’s offensive between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.

The conflict, which left the Gaza Strip run by Hamas devastated, killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly women and children. Israel says it lost 73 people, most of them soldiers.

Netanyahu said Israel upholds “high standards of international law” and that the country’s “actions are subjected to careful and constant review of … world-renowned and utterly independent legal system”.

“But this decision is even more preposterous given that Israel is legitimately defending itself against Palestinian terrorists who routinely commit multiple war crimes,” said Netanyahu.

“They deliberately fire thousands of rockets at our civilians while hiding behind Palestinian civilians whom they as human shields.”

Hamas hails decision

The comments were a veiled reference to Hamas, which said on Saturday it welcomed the ICC’s decision.

Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, said the group would provide the ICC with “thousands of reports” suggesting “horrible crimes” were committed.

“What is needed now is to quickly take practical steps in this direction and we are ready to provide [the court] with thousands of reports and documents that confirm the Zionist enemy has committed horrible crimes against Gaza and against our people.”

Israel rejected the court’s Friday decision as hypocrisy and the US State Department said it was “a tragic irony that Israel, which has withstood thousands of terrorist rockets fired at its civilians and its neighborhoods, is now being scrutinized by the ICC”.

Israel in 2005 pulled its settlers and troops out of Gaza, which remains under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade.

Palestinians seek statehood in Gaza and the West Bank.

Palestinian foreign minstry officials said on Friday that “everything is going according to plan” and that “no state and nobody can now stop this action we requested”.