Matt McCarten: No Amnesty for Israel in new report on Gaza

Two days after last Christmas Israeli armed forces invaded the Gaza Strip killing 1400 Palestinians, almost all civilians including 300 children. During that three-week campaign three Israeli citizens died. Israel barred international media, allowing Israeli spokespeople carte blanche to spin their propaganda without the nuisance of independent verification.

Israeli troops returned home leaving the Gaza in ruins and Amnesty International has mounted an independent investigation into the claims made that both sides had committed war crimes. That report came out this week.

It speaks volumes that from the start Israel refused to co-operate with Amnesty or with a separate UN fact-finding mission. On the other hand, the so-called Hamas terrorists did. I assume that's because Israel didn't believe its claims would stand up to outside scrutiny.

Before this week's report had even been published Israel's spin machine had been in full attack mode, claiming its findings would be unbalanced. And they were right to worry. The 127-page report is devastating in that it just tells the truth. Unsurprisingly, it finds that war crimes were committed by both sides. But Israel, as any objective observer knows, was the prime culprit. It's instructive Israel refused to respond to any specific incident that Amnesty investigated or attend any meetings to discuss the findings.

Hamas and other Palestinian militants' rocket attacks on towns in southern Israel were indeed war crimes. These attacks whipped up the Israeli population and were the publicised reason for the invasion. However, the report states the obvious, in that the scale and intensity of the Israeli response was completely out of proportion leaving over a thousand civilians dead and thousands more maimed. More destruction was caused and more people killed in the 22-day attack that any other conflict since the establishment of the Israeli state.

Most were killed in or near their homes by missiles launched from drones or gunships where the operators with optical equipment could see their victims in detail. What goes on in the heads of someone who deliberately fires into children playing in their back yards or a mother hanging her washing out to dry? The report itemises many cases where this happened and concludes Israeli operators knew they were killing civilians before bombs were detonated or shots fired. Civilised societies call it murder.

Israel claims most civilians were accidently killed in crossfire or used deliberately as human shields by Palestinian militants. This was blatantly untrue, and it was Israelis who used children to enter buildings they suspected of being booby-trapped. The report further finds that almost all civilians who died were either killed inside their homes by artillery or shot by Israeli soldiers when they emerged. Civilians were told they were to leave their homes and shot when they tried to leave. Even UN safety zones were bombed.

When rescue workers tried to come to the aid of wounded they were either shot themselves or prevented from helping the wounded. The report says many of the casualties would have lived if they had been helped.

According to the report Israeli war crimes were deliberate and authorised at the highest levels. Despite denials, phosphorus shells were deliberately and widely used on densely populated areas. These shells explode mid-air, spreading acid fire that grotesquely disfigured any surviving victim. Entire neighbourhoods were deliberately wiped out.

Soldiers report their commanders told them "the gloves are off" and to shoot at anything that moved without fear of repercussions. The prime minister promised soldiers protection from any war crimes.

Graffiti left by soldiers saying "we come to kill you" and "a good Arab is a dead Arab" pretty much sums it up.

Anyone who wants to know the truth about the Gaza invasion should get a copy of the Amnesty report from its website. Israel can spin all it likes, but it can't hide the truth. Israel cut off Gaza from the rest of the world and then carried out a vengeful exercise in mass slaughter of innocents.