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Amnesty International Sees Evidence of Palestinian War Crimes in 2014 Gaza Conflict

JERUSALEM — Amnesty International has accused armed Palestinian groups, including the military wing of Hamas, of displaying “a flagrant disregard for the lives of civilians” during the 50-day war in Gaza last summer. In a report published early Thursday it said there was evidence that several deadly Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks amounted to war crimes.

The 63-page report came a week before a formal Palestinian accession to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, due to take effect on April 1. Palestinian officials have said that they plan to file a complaint against Israel for alleged war crimes during the last Gaza war and for settlement activity.

An Amnesty International report published in November accused Israel of war crimes in its campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip last summer, saying its military showed “callous indifference” to civilians in airstrikes on homes, some of which devastated entire families.

But once the Palestinians are members of the court they could themselves become the subject of war crimes investigations.

This latest report by the London-based human rights organization focuses on the firing by Palestinian groups of thousands of rockets and mortars toward civilian areas in Israel, as well as the conduct of the armed groups within the Gaza Strip that, according to the report, endangered Palestinian civilians.

Amnesty cited what it called “credible reports” that in some cases rockets or mortars were launched from within civilian facilities or compounds including schools, at least one hospital and a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City. It noted that the Palestinian groups stored rockets and other munitions in civilian buildings including United Nations schools during the conflict.

Since all the rockets used by the Palestinian groups, including those with ranges of up to 100 miles, are unguided and cannot be directed at specific targets, the report determined that they were “inherently indiscriminate,” and said that the use of such weapons was prohibited by international humanitarian law and amounted to a war crime.

“Palestinian groups must end all direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks,” Philip Luther, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Amnesty International, said in a statement. “They must also take all feasible precautions to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip from the effects of such attacks. This includes taking all possible measures to avoid locating fighters and arms within or near densely populated areas.”

Mr. Luther added: “The devastating impact of Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians during the conflict is undeniable, but violations by one side in a conflict can never justify violations by their opponents.”

A spokesman for Hamas, Taher al-Nounou, dismissed the report as “false,” saying it was “based on the Israeli narrative” and was “full of lies.”

The report detailed four cases in which Palestinian mortar and rocket attacks killed five civilians in southern Israel, including an inhabitant of an unrecognized Bedouin village, a Thai farmworker and three residents of Israeli communities along the Gaza border.

One of them was 4-year-old Daniel Tregerman, who was killed when shrapnel from a mortar round flew into his family’s living room. Gila Tregerman, Daniel’s mother, told Amnesty International that shrapnel “entered Daniel’s head, killing him immediately.” The report noted that the military wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Amnesty International also concluded that a Palestinian rocket that fell short was the cause of an explosion in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza in which 13 Palestinian civilians were killed, 11 of them children, despite Palestinian claims that it was an Israeli missile.

Amnesty said that since Israel did not allow its staff access to Gaza it was unable to verify some of the reported violations, such as rockets having been fired from the vicinity of hospitals.

Majd Al Waheidi contributed reporting from Gaza.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 7 of the New York edition with the headline: World Briefing | Middle East; Gaza: Report Assails Militants’ Conduct. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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