Wednesday
Sep092009
Gaza War: More than 1000 of 1387 Dead Were Civilians, Policemen
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 13:22
The Full List of Casualties from B'Tselem
The following is the official release from the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem:
Israeli security forces killed 1,387 Palestinians during the course of the three-week operation. Of these, 773 did not take part in the hostilities, including 320 minors and 109 women over the age of 18. Of those killed, 330 took part in the hostilities, and 248 were Palestinian police officers, most of whom were killed in aerial bombings of police stations on the first day of the operation. For 36 people, B’Tselem could not determine whether they participated in the hostilities or not.
Palestinians killed 9 Israelis during the operation: 3 civilians and one member of the security forces by rockets fired into southern Israel, and 5 soldiers in the Gaza Strip. Another 4 soldiers were killed by friendly fire.
B'Tselem’s figures, the result of months of meticulous investigation and cross-checks with numerous sources, sharply contradict those published by the Israeli military.
Israel stated that 1,166 Palestinians were killed in the operation and that 60% of them were members of Hamas and other armed groups. According to the military, a total of 295 Palestinians who were “not involved” in the fighting were killed. As the military refused to provide B'Tselem its list of fatalities, a comparison of names was not possible. However, the blatant discrepancy between the numbers is intolerable. For example, the military claims that altogether 89 minors under the age of 16 died in the operation. However, B'Tselem visited homes and gathered death certificates, photos, and testimonies relating to all 252 children under 16, and has the details of 111 women over 16 killed.
Behind the dry statistics lie shocking individual stories. Whole families were killed; parents saw their children shot before their very eyes; relatives watched their loved ones bleed to death; and entire neighborhoods were obliterated.
The extremely heavy civilian casualties and the massive damage to civilian property require serious introspection on the part of Israeli society. B'Tselem recognizes the complexity of combat in a densely populated area against armed groups that do not hesitate to use illegal means and find refuge within the civilian population. However, illegal and immoral actions by these organizations cannot legitimize such extensive harm to civilians by a state committed to the rule of law.
The extent of civilian fatalities does not, in itself, prove that Israeli violated the laws of war. However, the figures must be considered within the context of the numerous testimonies given by soldiers and Palestinians during and after the operation, which raise grave concerns that Israel breached fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and caused excessive harm to civilians. The magnitude of this harm requires Israel to conduct an independent and credible investigation, and not make do with military debriefings. Shortly after the operation, B'Tselem published guidelines for such an investigation and sent the Judge Advocate General’s Office some twenty illustrative cases, in which a total of about 90 Palestinian civilians were killed, demanding that they be investigated.
B’Tselem’s list of fatalities in Operation Cast Lead has been sent to the IDF Spokesperson’s Office for comment.
Organizations that participated in the statement: The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Bimkom, B’Tselem, Gisha, Physicians for Human Rights, Adalah , Yesh Din, HaMoked,Center for the Defence of the Individual, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Rabbis for Human Rights
The following is the official release from the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem:Israeli security forces killed 1,387 Palestinians during the course of the three-week operation. Of these, 773 did not take part in the hostilities, including 320 minors and 109 women over the age of 18. Of those killed, 330 took part in the hostilities, and 248 were Palestinian police officers, most of whom were killed in aerial bombings of police stations on the first day of the operation. For 36 people, B’Tselem could not determine whether they participated in the hostilities or not.
Palestinians killed 9 Israelis during the operation: 3 civilians and one member of the security forces by rockets fired into southern Israel, and 5 soldiers in the Gaza Strip. Another 4 soldiers were killed by friendly fire.
B'Tselem’s figures, the result of months of meticulous investigation and cross-checks with numerous sources, sharply contradict those published by the Israeli military.
Israel stated that 1,166 Palestinians were killed in the operation and that 60% of them were members of Hamas and other armed groups. According to the military, a total of 295 Palestinians who were “not involved” in the fighting were killed. As the military refused to provide B'Tselem its list of fatalities, a comparison of names was not possible. However, the blatant discrepancy between the numbers is intolerable. For example, the military claims that altogether 89 minors under the age of 16 died in the operation. However, B'Tselem visited homes and gathered death certificates, photos, and testimonies relating to all 252 children under 16, and has the details of 111 women over 16 killed.
Behind the dry statistics lie shocking individual stories. Whole families were killed; parents saw their children shot before their very eyes; relatives watched their loved ones bleed to death; and entire neighborhoods were obliterated.
The extremely heavy civilian casualties and the massive damage to civilian property require serious introspection on the part of Israeli society. B'Tselem recognizes the complexity of combat in a densely populated area against armed groups that do not hesitate to use illegal means and find refuge within the civilian population. However, illegal and immoral actions by these organizations cannot legitimize such extensive harm to civilians by a state committed to the rule of law.
The extent of civilian fatalities does not, in itself, prove that Israeli violated the laws of war. However, the figures must be considered within the context of the numerous testimonies given by soldiers and Palestinians during and after the operation, which raise grave concerns that Israel breached fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and caused excessive harm to civilians. The magnitude of this harm requires Israel to conduct an independent and credible investigation, and not make do with military debriefings. Shortly after the operation, B'Tselem published guidelines for such an investigation and sent the Judge Advocate General’s Office some twenty illustrative cases, in which a total of about 90 Palestinian civilians were killed, demanding that they be investigated.
B’Tselem’s list of fatalities in Operation Cast Lead has been sent to the IDF Spokesperson’s Office for comment.
Organizations that participated in the statement: The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Bimkom, B’Tselem, Gisha, Physicians for Human Rights, Adalah , Yesh Din, HaMoked,Center for the Defence of the Individual, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Rabbis for Human Rights
tagged B'Tselem, Gaza, Gaza War, Israel Defense Forces in Middle East & Iran
B'Tselem, Gaza, Gaza War, Israel Defense Forces in Middle East & Iran
Reader Comments (4)
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Enduring America and frank. Enduring America said: #Gaza War: Of 1387 #Palestine Dead, 773 Civilians, 248 Policemen http://bit.ly/uLpy4 #israel #tcot #tlot #politics [...]
And most of the policement who were killed are actually members of terror organization: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3720759,00.html
I wonder how many other terrorists did B'tselem miss.
Women and children constitute about 75% of the Gaza population, and are significantly underrepresented among the casualties. Next time Hamas can choose another battlefield if they want to reduce their casualties.
Nice try.
That article is based on the research of the 'Orient Research Group'- which it hails as an independent group. In fact, this group investigating IDF actions was founded by non other than Lt. Col. Jonathan D. Halevi- a reserve in the IDF!!!
Not only that but Halevi, who remains head of policy and reseach at the ORG, is a former advisor to the Policy Planning Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Not only that but the man has written countless articles, before this investigation, where he talks about Hamas terrorists taking over the civilian and political infrastructure in Gaza.
SO INDEPENDENT, HE AIN'T!!!!
"Next time Hamas can choose another battlefield if they want to reduce their casualties"
Another way of looking at it is that Palestinians could reduce their casualties if they were not forced to live in one of the most densely populated areas in the world and had the freedom of movement to escape war zones.
Another would be simply note that next time if the IDF wanted to reduce civilian casualties, they could avoid using weapons such as white phospherous in areas they know to be 75% populated by women and children.
We are dealing here with the no. 1 warmonger nation in the Middle East if not the world. Let's face facts there is only one way to deal with the Israeli nation and that is to have the state itself dismantled to be replaced by a bi-national Palestine. Given the racist, imperialist, apartheid nature of the Israeli state this can only happen and will only happen by military force. It is up to Hezbollah and Hamas and Fatah and Iran and Syria and any other arab nation not in the pocket of western imperialists to cooperate for a long term military campaign to weaken and ultimately defeat Israel.
The way to deal with a settler state like Israel is unrelenting military attacks to encourage emigration resulting in the weakening of their military establishment. The model here is Algeria and Rhodesia.
And please no silly arguments about throwing anyone into the sea. Once the zionist state is defeated the state can have both jewish and arab citizens--in other words a binational state free of its zionist character ready to implement a policy of return for the Palestinian refugees.