The Israeli forces have demolished hundreds of houses in Rafah

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, June 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israel's human rights violations in the Palestinian territories reached unprecedented levels and could not be justified by security pretexts, a leading Israeli rights group said Wednesday, June 30.

"The scope and gravity of human rights violations in the occupied territories reached an unprecedented scale in the last year," the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said in a report carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The watchdog asserted that Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip had killed dozens of innocent civilians, citing the latest Rafah military offensive as a case in point.

The Israeli army operations in Rafah during May "were accompanied by blatant violations of the residents' human rights," read the report.

"Soldiers opened fire indiscriminately, prevented the evacuation of the injured, killed dozens of people, some of whom were armed, but many more of whom were innocent children, women and men."

The Israeli military offensive on Rafah and its refugee camp, the bloodiest of its kind in years, has claimed the lives of up to 62 Palestinians, flattened 155 homes and drove some 2000 residents homeless.

Nearly a quarter of the victims were killed when the army used a helicopter and a tank in a bid to disperse the crowds protesting against the offensive.

The international human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, had dismissed the operation as "war crimes".

An Amnesty report said 3,000 houses were demolished by Israeli forces in Rafah since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada against the occupation.

Gross Violation

Arab Israeli citizens, who make up a fifth of Israel's population, were also victims of a discriminatory land policy, while the disabled were being prevented from integrating into society through a lack of access to public places, said the Israeli human rights group.

The report said the building of the West Bank separation wall "disregarded international law and human rights."

"The state's obligation to ensure the well being of its citizens cannot be used as a justification for the gross violation of Palestinian residents' rights that are directly infringed by the barrier's route."

The report was issued as the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the rerouting of the wall near occupied Jerusalem.

"Very Badly"

ACRI exeuctive director Rachel Benziman said the overall picture painted in her organisation's report reflected "very badly on the image of Israel."

"Our duty is to say what's wrong ... We think that even in times of war, human rights should be protected. It's the duty of the government to reconcile human rights when planning military operations."

Israel has come under fire from world human rights groups for oppressive practices against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Amnesty condemned in a report released in September last year the Israeli policy of assassinations, adding that restrictions imposed by Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have had a disastrous impact on the lives of Palestinians.

The assassinations policy is vehemently condemned as a violation of the international law, since they are adopted by the whole country and not as individual acts, said the report.

Other reports slammed Israel for targeting Palestinian children and women, and using them as shields.

With a photo in evidence, the Newsweek cited in April a 13-year-old Palestinian "grabbed" by Israeli soldiers and put on the hood of an Israeli jeep to protect them from young Palestinian stone-throwers.