Final Gaza toll shows 960 civilians killed
Saturday, 14 March 2009
GAZA, Mar 13 (Reuters): Israel's 22-day offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip killed 1,434 people, including 960 civilians, 239 police officers and 235 fighters, a Palestinian human rights group said Thursday.
Israel carried out attacks by air, land and sea from December 27 to January 18 in a bid, it said, to force Hamas and other militant Islamist groups to stop firing rockets and mortars at southern Israeli towns across their border.
"The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights' investigations reveal that throughout the course of the assault, Israeli occupation forces used excessive, indiscriminate force, in violation of the principle of distinction," the group said in a report.
The principle of distinction "obliges all parties to the conflict to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants".
An Israeli military spokesman said the army had "made every effort to minimise harm to the civilian population" during the fighting.
The army said it telephoned warnings in advance to urge residents to leave combat zones. The army statement rejected the charges it had set out to intentionally harm civilians calling the allegations "absurd and false".
The group said it would publish a list of the identities of those killed next week and would post them on its website in Arabic, with an English version to follow.
Israel carried out attacks by air, land and sea from December 27 to January 18 in a bid, it said, to force Hamas and other militant Islamist groups to stop firing rockets and mortars at southern Israeli towns across their border.
"The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights' investigations reveal that throughout the course of the assault, Israeli occupation forces used excessive, indiscriminate force, in violation of the principle of distinction," the group said in a report.
The principle of distinction "obliges all parties to the conflict to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants".
An Israeli military spokesman said the army had "made every effort to minimise harm to the civilian population" during the fighting.
The army said it telephoned warnings in advance to urge residents to leave combat zones. The army statement rejected the charges it had set out to intentionally harm civilians calling the allegations "absurd and false".
The group said it would publish a list of the identities of those killed next week and would post them on its website in Arabic, with an English version to follow.