Israel: Investigate Gaza Beach Killings

[Englander]

(Gaza City, June 13, 2006) – Israel should immediately launch an independent, impartial investigation of a June 9 Israeli artillery strike on a beach north of Gaza City, Human Rights Watch said today. Seven Palestinian civilians picnicking on the beach were killed that day and dozens of others were wounded.

Human Rights Watch researchers have visited the site to examine the fatal crater and have interviewed victims, witnesses, security and medical staff.

"There has been much speculation about the cause of the beach killings, but the evidence we have gathered strongly suggests Israeli artillery fire was to blame,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and Africa division at Human Rights Watch. “It is crucial that an independent investigative team, with the necessary expertise, verify the facts in a transparent manner."

The independent investigation should involve the use of external, international experts. Human Rights Watch called on the Palestinian Authority to permit such an investigation, including allowing access to the site by the investigative team. Israel has carried out an internal army probe into the incident and released its findings this evening, saying the explosion was not caused by an Israeli artillery shell. However, such internal investigations by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have generally fallen short of international standards for thorough and impartial investigations and have rarely uncovered the truth or held to account the perpetrators of violations, as documented in a 2005 Human Rights Watch report, Promoting Impunity: The Israeli Military’s Failure to Investigate Wrongdoing.

>snip

Human Rights Watch researchers currently in Gaza interviewed victims, witnesses, Palestinian security officers and doctors who treated the wounded after the incident. They also visited the site of the explosion, where they found a large piece of unoxidized jagged shrapnel, saatamped "155mm," which would be consistent with an artillery shell fired by the IDF’s M-109 Self-Propelled Artillery.

More at;
HRW

[Warren Stupidity]

1. IDF's denial is a joke.

The PA doesn't have any artillery. They do have those shitty rockets that can't hit anything, but this was not a rocket as the remains of the shell have been found and identified. Why exactly would the PA shell the beach with artillery they don't have? Just because the IDF was routinely shelling Gaza at the time with the artillery they possess in great abundance is no reason to jump to the conclusion that this particular shell was one of theirs.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. maybe the shell spontaneously appeared out of thin air?

or maybe the easter bunny dropped it?

I saw the family photos of those kids. I cannot fathom the US response to this murder. Disgusting.

[barb162]

3. Maybe a Palestinian placed mine appeared out of thin air too

[Englander]

4. ~~

?click

[barb162]

6. The Smog Monster is preferable

[sabbat hunter]

5. i dont think

it is out of the realm of possibility that Hamas did mine the beach. this is after all a terror organization bent do destroy israel, by any means necessary.

[Englander]

8. So, that's another vote for the Single-Mine-Theory? n/t

[sabbat hunter]

11. not at all

i am just saying that hamas is a bunch of thugs. i wouldnt put anything past them. it needs to be investigated by an indpendent body on the site.

[Englander]

13. That's exactly what's being called for, an investigation by the UN

It will most likely never happen, as all the evidence collected points to a idf 155mm shell fired
from an idf Howitzer as the cause for the deaths of the family picnicking on the beach last Friday,
& the idf/GoI would, most likely, never allow a conclusive UN investigation to examine the beach.
That what happened in Jenin, the UN were blocked by the GoI.

[barb162]

7. incorrect

The Palestinians have katyushas which are accurate and thwe van which Israel attacked yesterday was loaded with them

[Englander]

10. Wow, you're claiming it was a katyusha, now?

So, that's another barely plausible theory, to add to the rest.

Another family were killed yesterday, in that attack on a busy street;

'June 14, 2006
Israeli Missiles Kill 10 in Gaza
By STEVEN ERLANGER and IAN FISHER

GAZA, June 13 — Eight Palestinian civilians were killed and more than 40 wounded Tuesday by an Israeli missile strike on Islamic militants riding in a van that Israeli officials said was carrying rockets to launch at Israel. Two men in the van were also killed, including a man the Israelis consider an important rocket maker.

>snip

In the attack on Tuesday, one missile struck a van and killed two members of Islamic Jihad and apparently wounded a third. But a second missile fired shortly afterward hit the curb just in front of a house whose occupants had emerged to see what had happened, and members of the Mughrabi family and their neighbors were killed.

Two children and three medical workers died in the second explosion, after the first had destroyed the yellow Volkswagen van of a noted Islamic Jihad rocket maker, Hamoud Wadiya, who was killed. Israel said Mr. Wadiya was transporting Katyusha rockets to launch at Israel, and rockets were seen in the wreckage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/14/world/middleeast/14mideast.html?pagewanted=print

[Englander]

9. Doubts over Gaza deaths inquiry

Doubts have been raised about Israel's denial of military responsibility for the deaths of eight Palestinians relaxing on a Gaza beach last Friday.

Investigator Gen Meir Klifi had said it was unknown what caused the blast, but hinted it was a Palestinian-laid mine.

In a later interview he again ruled out Israeli shelling but said old Israeli munitions could have been to blame.

Palestinians dismissed Israel's claims and are calling on the United Nations to hold an independent investigation.

The deaths of eight civilians on a beach near Beit Lahiya - seven of whom belonged to the same family and three of whom were children - sparked worldwide condemnation of Israel.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5079464.stm

[Tom Joad]

12. Historical revisionism is a terrible thing.

[Englander]

14. Previous HRW report;

'Promoting Impunity
The Israeli Military’s Failure to Investigate Wrongdoing

I. Introduction

Ruwaida al-Hajin and her two sons were killed by thousands of tiny, dart-like flechette rounds one Friday night in August 2002, during a summer holiday picnic. That same month Fatima Abu Dhahir was shot while sleeping in her front yard to avoid the heat. These and many other civilians are the faceless victims of lethal force used by the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Their deaths may have resulted from the unlawful use of lethal force or simply be the unfortunate result of incidents of armed conflict. But no one will ever know precisely what happened, because their deaths were never impartially investigated.

The situation is different for Ahmad Abu `Aziz, a six-year-old who died in June 2002 when he went out to buy a bar of chocolate. His death, recorded on video, was investigated by the IDF, as were some seventy other cases. But because Israeli military investigations are shrouded in secrecy and the results rarely made public, no one can judge whether the investigations were impartial – or if they had any result. The soldier alleged to have killed Ahmad along with his little brother and three other civilians is unlikely to stand trial. At the time of Human Rights Watch’s inquiry, he had reportedly left the army and was traveling overseas.

It is the army’s lack of accountability that has produced what a military court in 1989 termed this “bitter fruit.” This lack of accountability has reinforced the widely held belief that the Israeli army does not hold its forces responsible for the wrongful killing, injury, or ill-treatment of Palestinian or foreign civilians. Unlawful practices have gone uninvestigated and unchecked. With greater discipline and accountability on the part of Israeli forces, many civilians would not have been maimed or killed. And the lack of accountability is reflected in a surreal public relations war, in which the IDF first publishes inaccurate and self-serving accounts of victims’ deaths and later claims moral victory on the very few occasions when it finally agrees to investigate them.

The public outcry in the several incidents in which the IDF has injured Israeli civilians illustrates how arguments against conducting proper investigations to some extent rest on the assumption that those injured or killed may be Palestinians but not Israeli Jews. The case of Gil Na’amati, who was shot in the knee by IDF soldiers while participating in an unarmed demonstration against the West Bank separation barrier on December 26, 2003, is illustrative: Na’amati, an Israeli citizen, had recently completed his military service in a combat unit. In the public outcry that followed, the IDF reportedly opened both a special investigation and a Military Police investigation into this shooting. Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon was quoted as saying, “The Israeli army is not given orders to shoot at Israeli demonstrators, but under the circumstances, one cannot blame the soldiers for having made a mistake.” The soldiers, he said, “did not believe they were dealing with Israelis.”

http://hrw.org/reports/2005/iopt0605/3.htm#_Toc106249167