Amnsty reports Israeli ‘war crimes’.

Amnesty finds Israel guilty of war crimes in Gaza according to its report into the 50-day military attack this summer.

Residents of Gaza were bombed out of their homes by Israeli 'war crimes', says Amnesty report [Al Jazeera]

Israeli forces displayed “callous indifference” during the 50-day military attack on family homes across the Gaza Strip, says a new report released by Amnesty International.

“Families under the Rubble; Israeli attacks on inhabited homes” looked in detail at eight specific cases where Palestinian homes in Gaza were attacked by Israeli forces, without warning. The attacks took place during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in July and August of this year, causing the deaths of 62 children and more than 104 civilians.

In one attack documented by Amnesty in the report, 36 members of four families were killed when a three-storey building was struck. Survivors of an attack, detailed in the report, described scenes of strewn body parts amid the chaos resulting from multiple Israeli missile strikes on their house.

Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International, said: “Israeli forces have brazenly flouted the laws of war by carrying out a series of attacks on civilian homes, displaying callous indifference to the carnage caused.” 

At least 18,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged and more than 1,500 Palestinian civilians including 519 children were killed by the Israeli attacks.

Palestinian armed groups also committed war crimes, firing indiscriminate rockets into Israel, and are responsible for the deaths of six civilians including one child, says Amnesty.

“Israel must cooperate fully with the UN Commission of Inquiry and grant international human rights organisations such as Amnesty International immediate access to Gaza to prove its commitment to human rights,” said Luther.