B’Tselem Report: Israeli Government Unlawfully Bombed Residential Buildings in Gaza

On Wednesday, January 28, B’Tselem, one of the Israel’s leading human rights organization, released a report in which it alleges that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet persisted in an unlawful policy of bombing residential buildings in Gaza during last summer’s war (“Operation Protective Edge”). The report blasts the country’s civilian leadership, and specifically Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his cabinet, as being culpable in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in their homes. B’Tselem’s accusation came days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced it was opening a preliminary investigation into possible war crimes in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Buildings destroyed during Israel's "Operation Protective Edge" in the Gaza Strip, summer 2014. Israeli airstrikes destroyed everything from family homes to fishermen's boats; water systems to health centers.

Buildings destroyed during Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge” in the Gaza Strip, summer 2014. Israeli airstrikes destroyed everything from family homes to fishermen’s boats; water systems to health centers. (Photo: Oxfam)

For the purpose of this report, B’Tselem investigated 70 separate incidents in which at least three people were killed while inside their home. A total of 606 Palestinians were killed in such incidents, more than a quarter of the war’s death toll. The vast majority of these victims took no part in the fighting: more than 70% were either under 18 years of age, men over 60, or women.

“Operation Protective Edge” began on July 8, 2014. About 50 days later, the fighting ended in a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. During the fighting, which included an incursion by ground forces, the Israeli military launched strikes from the air, sea, and land against thousands of targets. More than 2,300 Palestinians were killed, including hundreds of children. About 18,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged and more than 100,000 Palestinians were rendered homeless. Over the course of the fighting, Palestinians fired over 4,000 rockets and mortar shells from the Gaza Strip, mostly at civilian communities inside Israel. As a result, five civilians were killed in Israel, including a four-year-old boy. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers died in the fighting.

On the first day of the war, Israeli forces attacked the home of the Kaware family in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. The house collapsed. Nine people, including five children aged 7 to 14, were killed. This was just the first of dozens of air, sea, and ground strikes, which would become one of the appalling hallmarks of the fighting in Gaza this past summer: bombings in which hundreds of people were killed. Time and again Palestinian families suffered such grievous losses of life. In a single instant, many families were decimated, the wreckage of their lives being mirrored in the devastation of their homes.

These attacks were not carried out on the whim of individual soldiers, pilots, or commanders in the field. They were the result of a policy formulated by government officials and the senior military command. These officials backed the policy of attacking homes, reiterating their contention that such attacks conform to international humanitarian law and eschewing any responsibility for harm to civilians.

The full report (42 pages, English)