UN report says Israel's war on Gaza may be war crime

The UN's Richard Falk is saying that the whole operation, as opposed to just individual instances of criminality, may have been a war crime.

The UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, Richard Falk, said in a report on Monday that there was "reason" to conclude that Israel's massive military offensive on Gaza in December and January was a war crime.

Falk said that in order to determine if the war was legal, it was necessary to assess if the Israeli forces could differentiate between civilian and military targets in Gaza.

"If it is not possible to do so, then launching the attacks is inherently unlawful, and would seem to constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law," Falk wrote in the report. AFP

The Israelis could differentiate between military and civilian targets, but chose not to, as the Guardian shows today.

A series of three investigations by the Guardian newspaper has unearthed more Israeli war crimes in Gaza. The investigations find that the IDF: used people as human shields; deliberate attacks on medics; and missile attacks from drones on clearly identifiable civilian targets such as hospitals. The stories include video testaments.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/23/israel-gaza-war-crimes-guardian

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