Human Rights Organizations to the MAG: Investigate suspicions of War Crimes by the Israeli Military in Gaza Following the Killing of the Al-Dalou Family

20/11/2012

Yesterday, 19 November 2012, human rights organizations based in Israel and Gaza demanded that a criminal investigation be opened into the suspicion of war crimes by the Israeli military following the killing of 10 Palestinian civilians, including 8 members of the Al-Dalu family, in Gaza on 18 November 2012.

(Haifa and Gaza) – Yesterday, 19 November 2012, human rights organizations based in Israel and Gaza demanded that a criminal investigation be opened into the suspicion of war crimes by the Israeli military following the killing of 10 Palestinian civilians, including 8 members of the Al-Dalu family, in Gaza on 18 November 2012. The family’s home was hit by a bomb at approximately 2:30pm, in an Israeli air strike on the residential building. Adalah, Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza put the demand forward in a letter to the Israeli Military Advocate General and the Attorney General.

Adalah Attorney Fatmeh El-‘Ajou submitted the letter and argued that the “bombing in these circumstances, directed at civilians, and destroying their property entirely, appears to be a crime according to the penal law.” Attorney El-‘Ajou added that the bombing constituted a “serious violation of the Laws of War, and amounts to a war crime according to customary international law.” Even if the attack intended to target a combatant, as claimed by the army, the attack was illegal. The very fact that a combatant is present among the civilian population does not cancel the civilian character of the population or the object/building; nor does the civilian population within the building lose the protection to which they are entitled.

On 18 November 2012, the fifth day of the Israeli assault on Gaza, the Israeli Air Forces dropped a bomb from the air on a building in the Nasser neighborhood in Gaza, home to three families. The building was completely destroyed, and eight members of the Al-Dalu family were killed and buried beneath the rubble: Samah Al-Dalu (27 years-old) mother to Jamal (6 years-old), Yousef (4 years-old), Sara (7 years-old) and Ibrahiem (1 year-old). Three other members of the Al-Dalu family were also killed in the blast: Tahani (52 years-old), Suheila (73 years-old), and Raneen (22 years-old). Abdullah (18 years-old) and Amina (83 years-old), of the Al-Maznar family, were also killed in the attack.

For more information please contact:

Edan Ring, Adalah Media Coordinator, +972-(0)546680085

*Photo by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza