Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Lebanon/Israel: IDF Fails to Explain Qana Bombing

Lebanon/Israel: IDF Fails to Explain Qana Bombing
Independent International Inquiry Required
(Beirut, August 3, 2006) - The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) inquiry
into the July 30 killing of at least 28 civilians in Qana is incomplete
and legally misguided, and contradicts eyewitness testimony, Human
Rights Watch said today. The findings underline the need for an
independent international inquiry into what took place.
 The Israeli military's explanation of what happened raises more
questions than it answers. Crucial information is missing to determine
what led the IDF to attack these civilians. Only an independent
international investigation can get at that.
"The Israeli military's explanation of what happened raises more
questions than it answers," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of
Human Rights Watch. "Crucial information is missing to determine what
led the IDF to attack these civilians. Only an independent
international investigation can get at that."
The IDF announced today that it targeted the building "in accordance
with the military's guidelines regarding the use of fire against
suspicious structures." Since July 12, Hezbollah fighters had
launched more than 150 rockets from Qana and the surrounding area, the
IDF said. The military said it attacked based on information that
"the building was not inhabited by civilians and was being used as a
hiding place for terrorists."
But the IDF failed to provide important details about the attack, Human
Rights Watch said. First, it did not say whether it believed that
Hezbollah fighters were in or around the building at the time of or
directly prior to the attack, which would potentially make the building
a legitimate target. Its failure even to make this claim suggests that
fighters were not present.
That conclusion was supported by two eyewitnesses interviewed by Human
Rights Watch, who said that Hezbollah was not in the area when the
attack took place. Human Rights Watch researchers who visited Qana the
day after the attack found no destroyed military equipment in or near
the home. None of the international journalists, rescue workers and
international observers who visited the scene has yet reported seeing
evidence of Hezbollah military presence in the area, and rescue workers
have not yet recovered any bodies identifiable as Hezbollah fighters.
Second, the IDF did not clarify why it believed that Hezbollah fighters
were in the building, rather than civilians. According to Muhammad
Mahmud Shalhub, who was in the basement during the attack, 63 members
of the extended Shalhub and Hashim families sought shelter in the
building when the first Israeli bombs hit Qana in the early evening of
July 29. It remains unclear why the IDF, with superior aerial
surveillance, did not know the families were there.
"Why did the Israeli military consider the building
'suspicious'?" Roth asked. "What information did it have to
reach that conclusion?"
The IDF also repeated previous statements that it had warned Qana
residents to evacuate, thereby suggesting that it was the victims'
fault because they chose to remain. But in Qana and other villages in
southern Lebanon, thousands of residents have been unable to leave the
area because they are sick, wounded, do not have the means to leave or
they fear Israeli attacks on vehicles.
"The Israeli military cannot warn people to leave and then attack at
will," Roth said. "The warnings are not an excuse to shoot blindly
at anyone who remains."
In a report issued today, "Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate
Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon," Human Rights Watch documented
a systematic failure by the IDF to distinguish between combatants and
civilians. In some cases, the timing and intensity of the attack, the
absence of a military target, as well as subsequent strikes on
rescuers, suggest that Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians.
Of all the cases of civilian casualties included in the report, Human
Rights Watch found, none involved Hezbollah deliberately using
civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack.
Hezbollah has occasionally stored weapons in or near civilian homes and
placed rocket launchers within populated areas or near United Nations
observers. Such acts are serious violations of the laws of war because
they violate the duty to take all feasible precautions to avoid
civilian casualties. However, those violations did not account for the
many deaths recorded in the Human Rights Watch report. Nor do those
cases justify the IDF's extensive use of indiscriminate force, which
has cost so many civilian lives.

Lebanon/Israel: IDF Fails to Explain Qana Bombing 
Independent International Inquiry Required
(Beirut, August 3, 2006) – The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) inquiry into


-- 
visitate 
http://www.comunisti-italiani.it/frames/index.htm
http://cubainforma.interfree.it/
il film sul 9/11 : 
http://www.loosechange911.com/
http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/Berlin.jpg
questo articolo e` stato inviato via web dal servizio gratuito 
http://www.newsland.it/news
 segnala gli abusi ad 
ab...@newsland.it