[Media-watch] Amnesty International: Israel/ Occupied Territories:Wanton destruction constitutes a war crime

[Sigi D]

From: Amnesty International <ai-news at amnesty.org>
Date: Tue Oct 14, 2003  10:39:53  Europe/London
Subject: Israel/Occupied Territories: Wanton
destruction constitutes a war crime
Reply-To: <ai-news at amnesty.org>

News Release Issued by the International Secretariat
of Amnesty International

AI INDEX: MDE 15/091/2003                             
       13 October 2003 

Israel/Occupied Territories: Wanton destruction
constitutes a war crime


Amnesty International condemns in the strongest terms
the large-scale destruction by the Israeli army of
Palestinian homes in a refugee camp in the southern
Gaza Strip town of Rafah, which made homeless hundreds
of people, including many children and elderly people.


"The repeated practice by the Israeli army of
deliberate and wanton destruction of homes and
civilian property is a grave violation of
international human rights and humanitarian law,
notably of Articles 33 and 53 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention, and constitutes a war crime," said Amnesty
International. 

This last wave of destruction between 10 and 12
October is part of a policy which the Israeli army has
been carrying out in the Occupied Territories for
decades and increasingly so in recent years. In the
past three years the Israeli army has destroyed some
4,000 Palestinian homes in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip, as well as vast areas of cultivated land,
hundreds of factories and other commercial properties,
roads and public buildings. 

The Israeli authorities have frequently contended that
the destruction of Palestinian homes and other
properties was necessary for the success of their
military/security operations, and that therefore it
was permitted by international humanitarian law.
However, investigations by Amnesty International and
other organizations, including Israeli NGOs, have
shown a recurring pattern of destruction of homes and
property as a collective punishment, to punish local
residents for attacks by Palestinian armed groups. 

On this occasion Israeli officials justified the
destruction of more than 100 Palestinian homes as due
to the presence in the area of three tunnels
reportedly used by Palestinian armed groups to smuggle
weapons from Egypt into the Gaza Strip. No weapons
were reported to have been found. Israeli officials
have not explained why the threat posed by the tunnels
could not have been tackled by proportionate means
that did not recklessly endanger the lives of
civilians and did not render hundreds of Palestinians
homeless. The army also claimed that armed
Palestinians used the now-destroyed homes to fire on
Israeli soldiers. However, they have not claimed that
the inhabitants of these homes were themselves
involved in any shooting or armed resistance. 

The Israeli army says it has uncovered 70 smuggling
tunnels in Rafah in the past three years and in the
same period it has destroyed more than 1,000 homes in
the area. 

"In most cases examined by Amnesty International, the
extensive destruction of Palestinian homes and
properties repeatedly carried out by the Israeli army
was not justifiable on grounds of absolute military
necessity," said Amnesty International. "Such wanton
destruction is unlawful and constitutes a war crime."

Amnesty International calls on the Israeli authorities
to put an immediate end to the practice of destroying
Palestinian homes and other properties, and of using
excessive, disproportionate and reckless force against
unarmed Palestinians and in densely populated
residential areas, which frequently result in the
killing and injuring of unarmed civilians, including
children.

The organization has repeatedly condemned the
deliberate killings of Israeli civilians by
Palestinian armed groups as a crime against humanity
and reiterates its calls on these groups to
immediately halt such practices. 


Background:

Much of the destruction of homes and agricultural land
in recent years has been in the Gaza Strip, one of the
most densely populated areas in the world, where more
than two thirds of the population now live under the
poverty line (of US $ 2 per day). 

According to the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency (UNRWA), the body which cares for Palestinian
refugees, 76 homes were completely destroyed, 44 were
partially destroyed and 117 damaged, and the number of
refugees left homeless by this latest wave of home
demolitions may be over 1,000. 

On this occasion, as in many previous operations by
the Israeli army involving the destruction of homes,
at least six Palestinians, including two children were
killed and scores of others, many of them children,
were injured during the period of 10 to 12 October. 

Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War clearly
states that "collective penalties are prohibited...
Reprisal against protected persons and their
properties are prohibited." Article 53 of the same
Convention states that "any destruction by the
Occupying Power... is prohibited, except where such
destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by
military operations."

Amnesty International condemns the deliberate killings
of Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed groups as a
crime against humanity.


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For the latest information on the crisis in Israel and
the Occupied Territories please visit
http://amnesty-news.c.tep1.com/maabycvaa1gpWbcWusyb/

Surviving under siege: read more in the Wire, October
2003 at
http://amnesty-news.c.tep1.com/maabycvaa1gpXbcWusyb/

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