Israel-Gaza: Amnesty calls for probe into possible war crimes during offensive in August

The International Criminal Court (ICC) "must investigate unlawful attacks" and possible war crimes during Israel’s August offensive on the Gaza Strip, Amnesty International said in a news report on Tuesday.

The human rights advocacy organisation collected photographs of weapons fragments, satellite imagery and testimonies that it says amount to evidence that war crimes were committed in three separate attacks during the three-day bombing campaign. 

Two were committed by Israel and killed six civilians despite Israel boasting about the precision of its attacks, according to the report.

The victims included a four-year-old boy, a teenager visiting his mother’s grave and a student at home with her family. 

“Israel’s latest offensive on Gaza lasted only three days, but that was ample time to unleash fresh trauma and destruction on the besieged population," said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

'Israel’s latest offensive on Gaza lasted only three days, but that was ample time to unleash fresh trauma and destruction on the besieged population'

- Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International

The London-based NGO examined a third incident that left seven civilans killed in “what appears to have been caused by an unguided rocket” fired by Palestinian groups.

"The three deadly attacks we examined must be investigated as war crimes; all victims of unlawful attacks and their families deserve justice and reparations,” Callamard added. 

Amnesty documented 17 attacks during the offensive, but it could only gather sufficient evidence to assess the lawfulness of three of those.

Israeli authorities have blocked Amnesty workers from reaching the Gaza Strip since 2012, so the organisation relied on local fieldworkers, wh0 collected 42 interviews and visual evidence from the sites of the attacks.

On 5 August 2022, Israel launched a pre-emptive military offensive on Gaza to target the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and its armed branch, the Al-Quds Brigades.

During the offensive, 49 Palestinians were killed, including 17 children, and more than 360 wounded as Israeli air strikes rained down on the besieged Strip over three days.

Amnesty said 33 were killed by Israeli forces while seven were killed by misfired Palestinian rockets. For the remaining nine, the group said it could not determine which party was responsible for their death.

Rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups did not cause the death or serious injury of Israeli civilians.