Hamas slams Amnesty International report on Israel's war on Gaza

The Islamic Hamas movement on Thursday slammed a report issued by Amnesty International, which accused the movement of using and killing civilians.

Salah al-Bardaweel, a senior Hamas Gaza leader, said in an emailed press statement that the report is "equivalent to the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation during its war on the Gaza Strip."

On July 8, Israel waged a 50-day air and ground operation on the Gaza Strip, targeting Hamas-led militant groups and destroying tunnels used for conducting attacks into Israel.

The war ended after Egypt brokered a truce; however, the war on Gaza left 2,200 Palestinians and 70 Israelis dead and over 11,000 wounded. The war also destroyed housing and infrastructure.

The Amnesty International report said some of the militant rockets which were fired into Israel during the offensive fell in a park in western Gaza City, with dozens of children there. Ten Palestinians were killed, according to medics.

• Hamas denied Israeli army reports that 10 Palestinians were killed by militant rockets and not by Israeli aircraft missiles.

"The report butchered real justice because Amnesty metamorphosed into a suspect entity openly and clearly serving Israeli terrorism blind to the 2,400 Palestinians slaughtered to death," said al-Bardaweel.

A senior Hamas leader said the report lacked objectivity in dealing with the issue which was also based on erroneous data, aimed at twisting facts and damaging the image of Palestinians.

"A Palestinian doesn't kill; a Palestinian defends himself by makeshift, handmade weapons, while Israelis use the most sophisticated weapons of death and destruction," said al-Bardaweel.

The Amnesty International had earlier pointed to Israeli actions during the conflict that "have amounted to war crimes."

"Israeli forces have killed scores of Palestinian civilians in attacks targeting houses full of families which in some cases have amounted to war crimes," the organization said in a report dated Nov. 5, 2014.

In response, the Israeli Foreign Ministry denied the war crime charge, saying that investigations were under way.
    Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
26/3/15
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Related:

• Amnesty International says Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes by firing rockets and other crudely built, indiscriminate projectiles into Israel during last year's conflict in the Gaza Strip....

• In a damning report released March 26, Amnesty International said Palestinian rocket fire during the 2014 summer war in Gaza had killed more civilians inside the Gaza Strip than inside Israel.