Print

Mail

wiki links

Turkish mayor acquitted of supporting `terrorists'

Israel's bombing of a power plant in the Gaza Strip this year was disproportionate and constituted a war crime under international law, an Israeli human rights group said yesterday.

Israeli warplanes bombed and largely destroyed the power plant outside Gaza City on June 28, three days after Palestinian militants abducted an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid from Gaza. The soldier is still being held.

Israel said at the time that it bombed the plant to cut power supplies and therefore make it more difficult for militants to operate and to transfer the captured soldier.

residents affected

The bombing cut off electricity to many of Gaza's 1.4 million residents

It also affected hospitals and food supplies, and had a knock-on impact on the water and sewage systems.

"The bombing of the power plant was illegal and defined as a war crime in international humanitarian law as the attack was aimed at a purely civilian object," rights group B'Tselem said in a report entitled Act of Vengeance.

"Even if one adopts the doubtful claim that the attack provided some definite military advantage, it was disproportionate and Israel had other, less harmful alternatives,?
This story has been viewed 1067 times.