A 'shocking disregard for lives'
Amnesty International has accused Israeli forces of war crimes during a day of "carnage" in the Gaza Strip that has been named Black Friday.
The group's report on alleged atrocities in Rafah during last year's conflict with Hamas claims Israeli forces killed at least 135 Palestinian civilians, including 75 children, following the capture of a soldier.
Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, 23, was with a unit searching for tunnels between Gaza and Israel when a fight started with militants and he disappeared on 1 August 2014.
Philip Luther, director of Amnesty International's Middle East programme, claimed that the "relentless and massive bombardment" that ensured in residential areas of Rafah was a direct response to the capture and displayed a "shocking disregard for civilian lives".
"They carried out a series of disproportionate or otherwise indiscriminate attacks, which they have completely failed to investigate independently," he added.
The report, 'Black Friday': Carnage in Rafah, was compiled with Goldsmiths University's London-based researchers Forensic Architecture and covers incidents over four days starting on 1 August, when a ceasefire broke down.
Using interviews, video footage, photographs and other evidence the researchers pieced together a timeline of events concluding that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) "Hannibal Directive" had been enacted.
Under the directive, Israeli forces can respond to the capture of a soldier with intense firepower which some analysts have claimed aim to kill the soldier rather than let them fall alive into enemy hands.
Amnesty's report found that civilians had returned to their homes in Rafah believing they were safe during an agreed ceasefire on the day when bombardment "began without warning", with masses of people on the streets.
"Eyewitness accounts described horrifying scenes of chaos and panic as an inferno of fire from F-16 jets, drones, helicopters and artillery rained down on the streets, striking civilians on foot or in cars, as well as ambulances and other vehicles evacuating the wounded," a spokesperson said.
In one of the deadliest incidents, researchers and military experts told Amnesty that two one-tonne bombs – the largest in Israel's air force arsenal – were dropped on a single-storey building in al-Tannur in eastern Rafah.
Amnesty International said the investigation revealed "compelling evidence yet of serious violations of international humanitarian law" and claimed a "cycle of impunity" continued to turn.
More than 1,400 Palestinian civilians were killed in the 50 day war, a third of them children, according to a UN report that found "possible war crimes" on both sides.
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