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IDF: Amnesty Report on Gaza Ignored Hamas War Crimes

[IDF Spokesperson] The IDF issued the following response to the Amnesty International report on Israeli conduct during the recent Gaza war: We find it both questionable and objectionable that a well-respected and ostensibly objective international organization such as Amnesty could produce a report on the Gaza operation without properly recognizing the unbearable reality of nine years of incessant and indiscriminate rocket fire on the citizens of Israel. The slant of the report indicates that the organization succumbed to the manipulations of the Hamas terror organization. The Gaza operation was a result of nine years of Hamas' unrelenting Kassam, Grad and mortar shell fire on more than a quarter of a million of Israel's citizens. Furthermore, the report presents a distorted view of the laws of war that does not comply with the rules implemented by democratic states battling terror. It also ignores the efforts of the IDF to minimize harming uninvolved noncombatant civilians while engaging terrorists who were operating from densely populated areas and using the local population as human shields. In many cases, the IDF warned the local population via leaflets, radio broadcasts, and direct calls to private cellular telephones. The IDF only targeted military targets and avoided harming civilians, sometimes to the detriment of its own military interests. In addition, the IDF enabled the transfer of humanitarian aid and also instituted a daily cease-fire so that the goods could be safely distributed.
2009-07-03 06:00:00
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