GAZA, March 2, 2011 (WAFA) – The Gaza-based Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights strongly criticized an Israeli report that justified the bombing of a residence of a Hamas leader in Gaza which killed 13 civilians and called for the implementation of the findings of the Goldstone report with regard to Israel.
An Israeli governmental committee appointed in 2008 by then prime minister Ehud Olmert to investigate the June 22, 2002 bombing of Salah Shehadeh’s house that killed him and 13 other civilians, including eight children one of them two-months old, concluded that the bombing was justified.
“Targeted killing against Shehadeh was imperative because of the increase and escalation in terrorist attacks since 2000, in a manner which led to a situation of actual war, classified as an armed conflict,” said the Israeli committee’s report.
It claimed that the results of the attack were “unintended, undesired and unforeseen,” and added that the consequences of the airstrike were not due to disregard or indifference to human lives.
The Israel committee has not recommended taking measures against any of those who committed and/or ordered the attack, said Al-Mezan.
“The Committee justified its recommendation of not holding any official responsible because ‘many years have passed since the attack.’ Those who committed and/or ordered the attack are now working at the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) and the government,” it said.
An Israeli aircraft dropped a one ton bomb on the building that killed Shehadeh, a commander in the Hamas military wing, Izz Eddin al-Qassam Brigades, totally leveling the building and causing heavy damage to several buildings around it.
The Israeli Yesh Gvul and the leftist Israeli activist Yoav Hass had appealed to the Israeli High Court to investigate the incidents and as a result Olmert formed a committee to look into it. The committee submitted its report to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on February 27.
Al-Mezan accused the Israeli committee of ignoring crucial facts in its findings, “a practice which is in line with Israeli officials’ justification for such attacks.”
It said the Israeli aircraft bombed a densely populated areas knowing very well that were civilians living in the building. The jet also dropped a one ton bomb with an intention to make a major destruction leveling eight houses and damaging 61 others.
“The claim that Shehadeh was the target cannot justify the selection and use of this ammunition – a one-ton bomb, in a densely populated area,” said Al-Mezan, adding that the strike occurred at midnight, when people are home and in bed.
“Extra-judicial killing is a crime that has no statute of limitation and those responsible for committing and/or ordering the attack have committed such a crime and must be held responsible even if they no longer serve in the positions they had when they committed it,” said Al-Mezan.
It accused the Israeli committee of “fabricating the reality,” and “establishing misleading facts.”
It said, “Israel has proven its unwillingness as well as its ineligibility to conduct objective, impartial investigations into suspected war crimes committed by its army.”
Al Mezan said it “calls on the international community to implement the recommendations of the UN Fact-Finding Mission report (the Goldstone Report). The Report urges the parties to initiate impartial, objective, and credible investigations into grave violations of international law committed by Israel. These violations are tantamount to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.”
M.A.
