Israeli soldiers shot dead 11 unarmed Palestinian civilians carrying white flags during Israel’s offensive in Gaza earlier this year, according to a report from Human Rights Watch, which said Israel had failed to investigate the killings adequately.
The deaths — including those of five women and four children — took place in seven separate incidents across Gaza in areas controlled by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), where there was no fighting and no Palestinian fighters were nearby.
Human Rights Watch, a New-York-based organization, which on Thursday published White Flag Deaths: Killings of Palestinian Civilians during Operation Cast Lead, said it informed the Israeli military of the cases in February. But the cases were not examined in an IDF internal investigation into the conduct of its forces, which concluded that they “operated in accordance with international law.” The group says at least three witnesses confirmed the details in each of the seven separate shootings.
Included among the cases is one first reported in detail by the Observer in Khuza’a, close to the fence surrounding Gaza.
Rawiya al-Najjar, 47, was shot dead, and her relative Jasmin al-Najjar, 23, was wounded while the two women were attempting to escape an attack on the village that included the use of white phosphorus and the bulldozing of houses.
Three other incidents occurred around the northern Gaza village of al-Atatra, which had previously seen fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters. By the time of the shootings, however, the fighting had stopped, and in each case the civilians were visible, unarmed and displaying white flags, the report says.
In one case, the civilians were walking in a group on a street.
In another, they were driving slowly on tractors and in cars, trying to leave the area with the wounded, according to the report.
“On the way we saw tanks and soldiers,” said Omar Abu Halima, 18. “When we saw them [the Israeli soldiers] they ordered us to stop. After we stopped they fired at us. They killed my cousin Mattar. My cousin Muhammad was wounded and later died.”
In another case — also in al-Atatra — two women holding white flags stepped out of a house that the IDF was demolishing to tell the soldiers that civilians were inside.
“We opened the door and a sniper fired at us from a house,” said Zakiya al-Qanu, 55. “Ibtisam was hit and I turned to go back inside and another bullet grazed my back. Ibtisam died in the doorway.”
Responding to the claims, the Israeli military said its soldiers were obliged to avoid harming anyone waving a white flag but added that in some cases Hamas militants had used civilians with white flags for cover. It said the reports were based on “unreliable witnesses” whose testimony was “unproven.”
Human Rights Watch said it could find no evidence of misuse of white flags or the use of civilians as human shields in the cases detailed.
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