Jerusalem, September 10: Over half of nearly 1,400 Palestinians killed in Israel’s Gaza war were civilians, including 252 children younger than 16, a leading Israeli human rights groups said on Wednesday, challenging Israel’s claim that most of the dead were militants.
Latest study conducted by a leading human rights Israeli group counteracts the claims of government that most of the dead in Israel Gaza war were “militants”. Indeed the study underscores the fact that over half of nearly 1,400 Palestinians killed in Israel’s Gaza war were “civilians”, including 252 children younger than 16.
The study raises doubts over the credibility of rules followed during the three-week offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers last winter by both sides.
Determining the number of civilian casualties which is seen as key in the ongoing debate over whether Israel, along with Hamas, violated the rules of war in its three-week.
International human rights groups suspect both sides to have committed war crimes in disguise.
They are of the view that – Israel entrusted by using disproportionate force in crowded Gaza, and Hamas by hiding behind civilians and indiscriminately firing rockets at Israeli towns.
The Israeli rights group B’Tselem on Wednesday published figures it said were compiled in months of research, including visits to families of victims. It said 1,387 Gazans were killed, including 773 civilians and 330 combatants. Thirteen Israelis also died, including four civilians.
The group refutes army’s internal probe as flawed and pronounces the need for the Israeli government to launch a high level independent probe to find out the high number of Palestinian civilian deaths.
B’Tselem even wrote “the extremely heavy civilian casualties and the massive damage to civilian property require serious introspection on the part of Israeli society.
–Agencies