MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th July, 2021) Attacks carried out by Israel and Palestine's Hamas movement during the May conflict might amount to war crimes and should be investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC), a prominent international human rights organization said on Tuesday.
"Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups carried out attacks during the May 2021 fighting in the Gaza Strip and Israel that violated the laws of war and apparently amount to war crimes," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
Citing international humanitarian law, which obligates warring parties to target only military objects in times of conflict, the watchdog said that three of Israeli attacks which it investigated were in areas with no apparent military targets, resulting in the death of 62 Palestinian civilians. Hamas, too, launched more than 4,360 unguided rockets and mortars to civilian-populated areas in Israel, according to the press release.
"Israeli authorities' consistent unwillingness to seriously investigate alleged war crimes, as well as Palestinian forces' rocket attacks toward Israeli population centers, underscores the importance of the International Criminal Court's inquiry," HRW associate crisis and conflict director Gerry Simpson said.
National courts in individual countries can also investigate and prosecute serious crimes committed during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict under the principle of universal jurisdiction, the rights group said.
According to United Nations estimates as cited in the press release, the Israeli attacks killed 260 Palestinians, including at least 129 civilians, of whom 66 were children. The number of injured was near 1,950, including 610 children, the watchdog said, citing the Gaza health ministry. Israel has reported 13 deaths, including 12 civilians and two children, and "several hundred" people injured, as cited in the press release.
The latest round of hostilities in the Gaza Strip lasted for 11 days until an Egypt-brokered ceasefire on May 20. The conflict came after days of clashes between the Arab population and the Israeli police in East Jerusalem over an Israeli court's decision to evict several Palestinian families from a holy city neighborhood.
