Date: 23 / 01 / 2009  Time:  10:29
Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies –

There is evidence that Israel committed war crimes during its three-week onslaught in the Gaza Strip, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, Richard Falk said on Thursday.

Falk said that the psychological trauma of the civilian population that endured the Israeli assault means that all of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents could be considered casualties. Israelis who are “treated for shock” following Palestinian attacks are counted as injured.

Falk, speaking to Reuters on the phone from his home in California, said called for an independent investigation into whether Israel’s actions amounted to war crimes.

"I believe that there is the prima facie case for reaching that conclusion," he told a Geneva news conference.

Falk said Israel had made no effort to allow civilians to escape the fighting.

"To lock people into a war zone is something that evokes the worst kind of international memories of the Warsaw Ghetto, and sieges that occur unintentionally during a period of wartime," Falk, who is Jewish, said, referring to the starvation and murder of Warsaw's Jews by Nazi Germany in World War Two.

"There could have been temporary provision at least made for children, disabled, sick civilians to leave, even if where they left to was southern Israel," the Princeton University professor said.

AI: IOF troops used phosphoric bombs against Gaza civilians

[ 22/01/2009 - 02:28 AM ]

LONDON, (PIC)--

Amnesty International said on Monday that the Israeli occupation terrorist army had indeed used internationally-prohibited bombs in shelling populated areas in Gaza Strip.

The AI findings constituted big blow to the Israeli occupation government, and exposed the Israeli lies of denying using such bombs in the war on Gaza.

The human rights organisation said that there is widespread evidence of Israel's use of white phosphorus bombs during its offensive against the Gaza Strip.

"Yesterday, we saw streets and alleyways littered with evidence of the use of white phosphorus, including still burning wedges and the remnants of the shells and canisters fired by the Israeli army," said Christopher Cobb-Smith, a weapons expert who is in Gaza as part of a four-person Amnesty International fact-finding team.

"White phosphorus is a weapon intended to provide a smokescreen for troop movements on the battlefield," said Cobb-Smith. "It is highly incendiary, air burst and its spread effect is such that it that should never be used on civilian areas”.

Amnesty International delegates found both burning white phosphorous wedges and their carrier shells (which delivered them) in and around houses and buildings.  Some of these heavy steel 155mm shells have caused extensive damage to residential properties, according to AI's press statement.

Legal experts in the organization underlined that the use of such bombs is considered as "war crime", especially if they were used in densely populated areas like Gaza Strip.

Israeli occupation investigation Feeling the heat of the international anger over using such bombs against civilians, the Israeli occupation government admitted its guilt and confessed it had indeed used them "in open areas".

The Israeli occupation government alleged that it was carrying out its own investigation on "how the phosphorous bombs were used, and not why they were used" in the war against Gaza.

The Hebrew Maariv newspaper quoted officers in the Israeli occupation army as alleging that the Israeli artillery shot projectiles covered with pieces of clothes saturated with phosphorous "with the aim to create smoke in the sky to cover the IOF troops' mobility, but many international organizations insisted that the phosphorus bombs were used indiscriminately.

The firm opinion of those organizations pushed the Israeli occupation army to the corner, prompting it to admit their guilt although they tried to deceive the international community by saying they were used against "terrorists".

Another blow to the Israeli fabrications came from Jordanian medical team that visited the tiny Strip, and found out that 90% of the Palestinian casualties were caused by the phosphorous bombs.

More than 1300 Palestinian civilians, the bulk of them were children and women, were killed and thousands have sustained severe injuries and burns as a result of the Israeli aggression that lasted for 22 days in which, Israel acknowledged it had involved nearly one-half of its air force.