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World Jewish News
Rights group: Hamas guilty of Gaza war crimes
06.08.2009
Hamas committed war crimes against Israel by besieging it with rockets during the three-week war in the Gaza Strip earlier this year, according to a Human Rights Watch report released on Thursday.
The 31-page report focusing on Operation Cast Lead, spotlights Hamas after Human Rights Watch and similar groups repeatedly accused Israel of committing war crimes.
"Hamas forces violated the laws of war both by firing rockets deliberately and indiscriminately at Israeli cities and by launching them from populated areas and endangering Gazan civilians," HRW program director Iain Levine said.
"Hamas rocket attacks targeting Israeli civilians are unlawful and unjustifiable and amount to war crimes," he said.
"As the governing authority in Gaza, Hamas should publicly renounce rocket attacks on Israeli civilian centres and punish those responsible, including members of its own armed wing," Levine said.
According to the report, Hamas both fired rockets and allowed militants to do the same, in attacks that killed three Israeli civilians. The offensive, launched by Israel in late December, was aimed at stopping years of daily Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli communities.
While the group also points to evidence of war crimes committed by Israel, it emphasizes that "violations by one party to a conflict never justify violations by the other."
More than 1,100 Palestinians were killed during the offensive. Palestinians said most were civilians, but Israel has disputed that.
Источник: Haaretz
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