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Investigate Israel for war crimes in last Gaza clash, urges Amnesty Int’l

Amnesty International statement glosses over 80-year-old Israeli killed by Islamic Jihad rocket, only briefly mentions Gaza-based terror groups indiscriminately firing at Israeli communities.

By World Israel News Staff

Amnesty International called for an investigation into the Israeli military’s actions during Operation Shield and Arrow, saying that the Jewish State may be guilty of war crimes during a recent conflict with terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

The international group, which released a report last year alleging that Israel is an apartheid state, said in a statement on Tuesday that the last clash was another example of “repeated war crimes” perpetrated by the Jewish State against the Palestinians.

The lengthy statement, which accused Israel of “unlawful killing and destruction,” only briefly mentioned the Islamic Jihad and other Gaza-based terror groups’ indiscriminate firing of rockets towards Israeli civilian communities, which is a war crime.

The Amnesty International statement named casualties of the operation in Gaza and focused on their life stories, yet did not identify Israeli citizen Inga Avramyan, 80, who was killed by a rocket fired from the Strip that hit her apartment building in Rehovot.

“The root cause of this unspeakable violence is Israel’s system of apartheid,” said Heba Morayef, Middle East and North Africa Regional Director at Amnesty International, ignoring a long history of Islamic terrorism originating from the Strip aimed at Israeli civilians.

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“This system must be dismantled, the blockade of the Gaza Strip immediately lifted, and those responsible for the crime of apartheid, war crimes and other crimes under international law must be held to account,” said Morayef.

“That we have been documenting the same patterns of unlawful killings and destruction over and over again is an indictment of the international community’s failure to hold Israel accountable,” she added.

“Israel’s impunity for the war crimes it repeatedly commits against Palestinians, and for its cruel ongoing 16-year illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip, emboldens further violations and makes injustice chronic.”

In recent years, Amnesty International has been disproportionately focused on criticizing Israel, while largely remaining silent regarding rampant human rights abuses against Gazans perpetrated by the ruling Hamas terror group.