Israel committed war crimes
![Palestinian girls attend class inside their school which was destroyed during the 50 days of conflict between Israel and Hamas last summer, in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, yesterday. Photo: AFP](https://tds-images.thedailystar.net/upload/gallery/image/arts/palestinian-girl.jpg)
Amnesty International yesterday accused Israel of committing war crimes during its campaign in Gaza as UN warns of another conflict looming in the war-ravaged territory.
The alarming UN report came amid renewed clashes arounf Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound. An Israeli border policeman was killed and nine other people wounded yesterday when a Palestinian ran down two groups of pedestrians in Jerusalem following weeks of tensions in the city.
It was the second such deadly car attack by a Palestinian in two weeks and came after a morning of violent clashes at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound involving police and stone-throwers.
A report released by Amnesty yesterday said Israel displayed “callous indifference” launching attacks on family homes in the densely populated coastal strip and in some cases its conduct amounted to war crimes. It adds that war crimes were also committed by Palestinian militants.
The 50-day war killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 72 people on the Israeli side, all but six of whom were soldiers.
Israel's foreign ministry rejected the report's findings, saying Amnesty “ignores documented war crimes perpetrated by Hamas” and had produced no evidence to back up its claims.
Amnesty says it documented eight instances in which Israeli forces attacked homes in Gaza without warning, killing “at least 104 civilians including 62 children”.
“The report reveals a pattern of frequent Israeli attacks using large aerial bombs to level civilian homes, sometimes killing entire families,” Amnesty said.
While possible military targets were identified in some cases, “the devastation to civilian lives … was clearly disproportionate”, it added.
The group said it had to conduct research for the report remotely as Israel denied it and other watchdogs access to Gaza.
Meanwhile, a senior United Nations official on Tuesday said that there is still not an effective or united Palestinian government in place in Gaza and unless stability is achieved rapidly, another conflict will engulf the territory.
Robert Turner, director of operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, said the extent of damage and homelessness after the July-August war was worse than first thought. The latest estimates suggested reconstruction would take two to three years if all went well, he said.
"If we do not have political stability, I think if we do not have a national Palestinian government, I think if we do not have at least an easing of the blockade, yes there will be another war," Turner told reporters.
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