By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
GAZA CITY, Gaza – Eleven international human rights groups called upon Hamas and Fatah authorities to open investigations around allegations of war crimes by Palestinian forces during 2008’s Gaza war. The groups each sent identical letters to Palestinian President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya on January 18, asking the leaders to follow the recommendations of the United Nations’ Goldstone Report.
On November 5, 2009, the U.N.’s General Assembly endorsed the Goldstone Report, the result of an investigation led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone. Though the Goldstone Report found that most of the war crimes committed during the Gaza war was the at the hands of the Israelis, it did not absolve Palestinians of such crimes, and cited several violations of international law by Palestinian forces. Examples include Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians, as well as instances of internal political repression both during and after the fighting, such as summary executions in the Gaza Strip and arrests and torture in the West Bank. Fatah has also admitted it previously tortured Hamas prisoners in its prisons in the West Bank and Gaza.
The call by the human rights groups came as Amnesty International accused Israel of “suffocating” the 1.4 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. Israel has imposed a blockade on the tightly populated territory since fighting ended in January 2009, cutting off reconstruction supplies. Much of the Gaza Strip remains covered in rubble from the Israeli mortars that rained down during the three-week war.
The letter from the human rights groups called on both Israel and the Palestinians to conduct internal investigations into the Goldstone Report’s allegations.
“Although a large part of the report deals with violations committed by Israel, it also touches on violations committed by armed Palestinian groups and the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank,” the letter said. “As international and Palestinian non-governmental associations, we call on Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to immediately launch credible internal investigations.”
For more information, please see:
AFP – Palestinian Rights Groups Urge Internal Gaza War Probe – 18 January 2010
BBC News – Call For Palestinians to Investigate Gaza “Crimes” – 18 January 2010
Canadian Press – Palestinian Rights Groups Call For Independent Investigation of Hamas in Gaza Fighting – 18 January 2010
Ha’aretz – Palestinian Activists Urge Hamas to Probe Own Gaza War Crimes – 18 January 2010
