“Until now we don’t understand why. We want
peace; and we want an investigation; we want to
know why me and my sisters have been orphaned.
Why did they kill our parents, our family?”
Fathiya Mousa, whose parents and siblings were killed in an Israeli air strike while sitting in their yard (see Chapter 1.1.2).
At 11.30am on 27 December 2008, without warning, Israeli forces began a devastating
bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip codenamed Operation “Cast Lead”. Its stated aim was
to end rocket attacks into Israel by armed groups affiliated with Hamas and other Palestinian
factions. By 18 January 2009, when unilateral ceasefires were announced by both Israel and
Hamas, some 1,400 Palestinians had been killed, including some 300 children and
hundreds of other unarmed civilians, and large areas of Gaza had been razed to the ground,
leaving many thousands homeless and the already dire economy in ruins
Much of the destruction was wanton and resulted from direct attacks on civilian objects as
well as indiscriminate attacks that failed to distinguish between legitimate military targets
and civilian objects. Such attacks violated fundamental provisions of international
humanitarian law, notably the prohibition on direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects
(the principle of distinction), the prohibition on indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks,
and the prohibition on collective punishment
Hundreds of civilians were killed in attacks carried out using high-precision weapons – airdelivered
bombs and missiles, and tank shells. Others, including women and children, were
shot at short range when posing no threat to the lives of the Israeli soldiers. Aerial
bombardments launched from Israeli F-16 combat aircraft targeted and destroyed civilian
homes without warning, killing and injuring scores of their inhabitants, often while they slept.
Children playing on the roofs of their homes or in the street and other civilians going about
their daily business, as well as medical staff attending the wounded were killed in broad
daylight by Hellfire and other highly accurate missiles launched from helicopters and
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, and by precision projectiles fired from tanks
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/a...a74-4853-860f-0563725e633a/mde150152009en.pdf
