Israeli Rights Groups Protest Closures

Palestinians line up at a gas station in Gaza to get fuel, which has been running out in the strip over the ongoing Israeli offensive.

This comes as the Palestinian health ministry said that the Israeli army was using new type of banned chemical explosives in its offensive against the Palestinians.

"Withholding fuel, food, and equipment from Gaza residents constitutes collective punishment, in violation of international law," said Shabtai Gold, spokesman for Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, one of the groups which filed the petition, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Gaza's main crossings have been closed down since Israel launched its almost two-week offensive in Gaza on the pretext of seeking the release of an Israeli soldier taken prisoner by Palestinian groups.

The Israeli closure has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the strip, with fuel is about to run out.

In their petition, the six Israeli groups demanded a reopening of the crossings to "to prevent serious harm to the health of the civilian population."

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has said Gaza is "on the brink of a public health disaster" since Israel bombed Gaza's sole power plant on June 28.

The European Commission announced Tuesday that it was sending emergency fuel supplies to Gaza through an international mechanism set up to meet the basic needs of Palestinians, the first aid to flow in such a manner.

Protect Civilians

The groups urged the Israeli army to spare civilians the scourge of war.

"Israel is not fulfilling its legal obligations to provide for the needs of the civilian population and to distinguish between military and civilian targets," they said.

"Israel is required, both by international law and by Israeli law, to discern at all times between military and civilian targets, to avoid attacking obvious civilian targets such as power stations, and to participate actively in supplying the basic needs of the civilian population," the groups said.

"Even if the damage to the civilian population serves some legitimate purpose, it doesn't pass the quantitative test, and thus it is also illegal," they added.

Early July, several hundred Israelis protests against the deadly open-ended Israeli offensive against Gaza, which Israel says it has launched to release a soldier taken prisoner by Palestinian factions.

They gathered outside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's home carrying signs reading "No to attacks on civilians" and "No military solution."

The Israeli protestors called for dialogue with the Hamas-led government in order to secure the release of the conscript.

Banned Weapons

A 6-year-old Palestinian child is being carried to the Shifa hospital after an Israeli shell hit their house.

It said the Israeli explosives contain toxics and radioactive materials which burn and totally tear the victim's body.

"Even bodies of the injured have been almost completely burnt. They have been deformed in a very ugly way that we have never seen before," Dr. al-Saqqa of the Shifa hospital told the Doha-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel.

Some 50 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israeli launched its wide-scale onslaught in the territory.

The health ministry said doctors have been forced to amputate limbs of at least 12 injured Palestinians as a result of injuries they sustained in the Israeli offensive.

Saqaa, who heads the hospital's emergency service, said relatives had been unable to identify the dead victims.

"When we try to X-ray dead bodies, we find no trace of the shrapnel that hit the person killed," he said, adding that the bodies seemed to have been chemically burnt.

"We are sure that Israel is using a new chemical or radioactive weapon in the new operation. More than 25% of the injured are children, aged under 16."

The Palestinian health ministry called on the international community and rights organizations to send an international medical convoy to examine the victims' bodies.