AI calls for an investigation at the ICC to judge possible war crimes during the August attacks on Gaza

Amnesty International demands that Spain suspend the supply and sale of weapons to Israel

MADRID, 25 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The NGO Amnesty International has demanded this Monday an investigation in the International Criminal Court to judge possible war crimes during the August clashes between the Israeli Army and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. In relation to this violence, Amnesty has urged the Spanish government to stop selling weapons to Israel.

"Despite the fact that Israel's latest offensive against Gaza only lasted three days, it was enough time to unleash new trauma and destruction on the besieged population. The three deadly attacks we examined must be investigated as war crimes; all victims of unlawful attacks and their families deserve justice and reparation", said the secretary general of the NGO, Agnès Callamard.

The Israeli Army announced in August a bombing operation against targets of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip after several days on alert for possible retaliation by the organization after the arrest in the West Bank of a senior member of the group.

The first minutes of the so-called operation 'Dawn' began with the announcement of the death of a commander of the Islamic Jihad military forces in northern Gaza, identified as Taisir al Jabari, a death that was confirmed by the militia itself.

After that, the parties began an exchange of missiles, both at different strategic points in the Gaza Strip and in Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv.

Amnesty International has concluded that among the victims of these "precision" attacks by Israel were a four-year-old boy, a teenager who was visiting his mother's grave and a 22-year-old student who was at home with her family.

According to the UN, the clashes resulted in the death of 49 Palestinians, while the NGO's assessment refers to 33 dead, whose responsibility would fall on the Israeli forces, among which there would be at least 17 civilians.

AI has interviewed 42 people, including survivors of the attacks, as well as relatives of the victims, eyewitnesses and medical personnel. Likewise, the NGO has also visited at least 17 places, collecting evidence such as photographs, remains of weapons or satellite images.

The 22-year-old student, Duniana al-Amur, was killed on August 5 by a shell fired by an Israeli tank that hit her home, just a kilometer from the Gaza border fence, wounding her mother, Farha, and her sister, 25 years old, Areej.

About twenty minutes after the shell hit, Israeli forces fired missiles at the Al Quds Brigades watchtower, 750 meters from the student's home. AI has expressed, after carrying out a ballistic analysis, that "it is unlikely that the tank was aiming at either of the two watchtowers when it reached the house", since "if it had been, it would have missed by hundreds of meters".

Another of the incidents analyzed by AI is the missile attack on the Al Falluja cemetery in Jabalia, in the north of the Gaza Strip, on August 7, when the 15-year-old teenager Nadhmi Abu Karsh was visiting the grave of his mother.

"Suddenly we heard the sound of a missile exploding very close to where we were. I ran to the cemetery, like almost everyone else in the neighborhood. People started collecting tattered body parts. The parents did not recognize the bodies of their own children," their father, Fayez, told Amnesty.

The Israeli military initially blamed the attack on Palestinian Islamic Jihad. However, sources revealed to the 'Haaretz' newspaper that preliminary investigations did not show that neither this group nor the Al Quds Brigades had launched missiles at the time of the attack.

"We have videos that prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that it is not an Israeli attack. It has been unequivocally proven that it is a failed Islamic Jihad rocket launch," another military source quoted by 'The Times of Israel' pointed out.

"The absence of apparent military objectives indicates that the attack could have been a deliberate direct attack against the civilian population or civilian objects and, therefore, constitute a war crime," AI said, adding that "The appalling consequences require an urgent investigation."

Amnesty has also concluded that "there is evidence to suggest that the attack on Jabalia refugee camp was the result of a stray rocket fired by Palestinian armed groups." Seven Palestinian civilians were killed in this incident.

AI, which has specified that the attack must be investigated "as a possible war crime", has revealed that two minutes before the explosion occurred, the Al Quds Brigades began a live broadcast on social networks of what they described as the launch of a barrage of rockets against Israel.

"At 9:02 p.m. (local time) the attack took place on the street, which was full of injured people, with blood and shrapnel. My little son Momen died in my arms and Ahmad died just a meter from me. The only thing that comforts us is the fact that our children's bodies were not torn to pieces," said a father who lost two of his children.

Within the framework of the report, Amnesty International has called on the Government of Pedro Sánchez to immediately suspend the sale of weapons to Israel "until substantive measures are taken to guarantee that there is no substantial risk that this material will be used to commit or facilitate violations grave international law".

"Amnesty has been calling for a suspension of this type of sales since 2008, which the Spanish government temporarily agreed between July and September 2014, when a 50-day Israeli military offensive in Gaza that began on July 8 of that year killed more than 1,500 civilians," he specified.

Thus, the NGO has highlighted that the Spanish Government authorized between 2008 and 2021 arms sales licenses worth more than 116 million euros and exported weapons to Israel worth more than 21 million, while in 2021 it granted 55 export licenses of defense material to Israel worth 13 million and exported weapons worth more than 3 million.