Investigate misuse of US weapons in Gaza and stop arms transfers to Israel
With fragile ceasefires now in place in Gaza and southern Israel, the full extent of the devastation caused in recent weeks is becoming increasingly clear. Amnesty International researchers visiting Gaza and southern Israel during and after the fighting found evidence of war crimes and other serious violations of international law by all parties to the conflict, including with many U.S. weapons.
According to Article 16 of the International Law Commission's Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, "A State which aids or assists another State in the commission of an internationally wrongful act by the latter is internationally responsible for doing so if: (a) that State does so with knowledge of the circumstances of the internationally wrongful act; and (b) the act would be internationally wrongful if committed by that State."
Following the start of the Israeli military offensive on December 27, Israeli forces killed more than 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 300 children and many other civilians, and injured over 5,000 other Palestinians, again including many civilians. Israeli forces also destroyed thousands of homes and other property and caused significant damage to the infrastructure of Gaza, causing a worsening of the humanitarian crisis arising from the 18-month blockade maintained by Israel.
Some of the Israeli bombardments and other attacks were directed at civilians or civilian buildings in the Gaza Strip; others were disproportionate or indiscriminate. During the same period, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups continued to fire indiscriminate rockets into residential areas of southern Israel, killing three civilians.
Amnesty International researchers found fragments and components from munitions used by the Israeli Army -- many U.S.-made -- littering school playgrounds, in hospitals and in people's homes. They included artillery and tank shells, mortar fins and remnants from Hellfire and other airborne missiles, large F-16 delivered bombs, and still-smoldering, highly incendiary white phosphorus remains.
For example, they found the marking PB-91K018-035 on the fragments of one of the white phosphorus artillery shells used in the Israeli attack of UNRWA's field operations headquaters in Gaza City on January 15. This attack had caused a large fire, which destroyed tens of tons of humanitarian aid, including, medicines, food and other non-food items. The markings indicate that the shells were assembled by Pine Bluff Arsenal (PB) in 1991 (91) in October (K).
White phosphorus is a weapon intended to provide a smokescreen for troop movements on the battlefield. When each 155mm artillery shell bursts, it releases 116 wedges impregnated with white phosphorus which ignite on contact with oxygen and can scatter, depending on the height at which it is burst (and wind conditions), over an area at least the size of a football pitch. In addition to the indiscriminate effect of air-bursting such a weapon, firing such shells as artillery exacerbates the likelihood that civilians will be affected. When white phosphorus lands on skin it burns deeply through muscle and into the bone, continuing to burn until deprived of oxygen. It can contaminate other parts of the patient's body or even those treating the injuries.
In another example, Amnesty International researchers found a fragment labeled "guided missile, surface attack", made in the USA, at the scene of a troubling attack by the Israeli military. Three paramedics in their mid 20s - Anas Fadhel Na'im, Yaser Kamal Shbeir, and Raf'at Abd al-'Al - were killed in the early afternoon of January 4 in Gaza City as they walked through a small field on their way to rescue two wounded men in a nearby orchard. A 12-year-old boy, Omar Ahmad al-Barade'e, who was standing near his home indicating to the paramedic the place where the wounded were, was also killed in the same strike.
