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Amnesty Condemns Attacks on Israeli Civilians, Ignores Palestinian Deaths
LONDON,
July 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – While accusing the
Israeli army of committing human rights violations against
Palestinians who are resisting occupation, the lobby group Amnesty
International described Thursday, July 11, the attacks by Palestinian
groups on Israeli civilians as “crimes against humanity.”
In
its seventh report on the human rights situation in the West Bank and
Gaza since the start of the second intifada, or uprising in September
2000, that was announced in a press conference in Gaza Thursday,
Amnesty urged the Palestinian Authority to arrest and try those who
ordered, planned and carried out attacks on Israeli civilians.
The
report also said that at least 350 civilians, the vast majority of
them Israeli, had been killed in more than 128 attacks by armed
Palestinian groups or individuals.
The
report did not mention that the Israeli forces killed 1438
Palestinians – most of them children and teenagers - during the same
period of time.
“Whatever
the cause for which people are fighting, there can never be a
justification for direct attacks on civilians,” it said in a
statement accompanying a new report on the Middle East crisis.
Amnesty
said the armed groups offered a variety of reasons for targeting
civilians, such as retaliation against Israeli killings and that they
are aimed at an occupying power.
Other
attempted justifications are that Israeli settlers are not civilians
or that striking at non-combatants is the only way to make an impact
on a more powerful adversary, it added.
Amnesty
said it “unreservedly condemns” attacks on civilians, which could
never be justified under international law.
“Civilians
should never be the focus of attacks, not in the name of security and
not in the name of liberty. We call on the leadership of all
Palestinian armed groups to cease attacking civilians, immediately and
unconditionally,” the rights group stressed.
The
report also urged Israel to comply with international human rights
standards in all its operations.
From
another side, Mahmoud El-Zahar, one of the leaders of the Palestinian
Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, said that the movement refuses such
calls, confirming the right of the Palestinians to defend themselves.
“This
is not a war between two armies, and the report is ignoring the
legitimate motives of our fight,” he added.
The
members of Amnesty have met with leaders of the Hamas, Al-Jihad, and
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in order to show
them the report before it is officially announced and to try to
convince them of stopping any operations against civilians.
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