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Amnesty international fordert Waffenembargo gegen Israel und Hamas / "Suspend military aid to Israel, Amnesty urges Obama"

Tel Aviv und Hamas weisen Vorwürfe zurück

Die Menschenrechtsorganisation Amnesty International hat den UN-Sicherheitsrat aufgefordert, ein sofortiges und vollständiges Waffenembargo gegen Israel und die Hamas zu verhängen

Tel Aviv/Gaza (dpa/ND). Die Menschenrechtsorganisation Amnesty International hat Israel und der Palästinenserorganisation Hamas Kriegsverbrechen bei den jüngsten Kämpfen im Gaza-Streifen vorgeworfen. In einem am Montag veröffentlichten Bericht rief die in London ansässige Organisation den Sicherheitsrat der Vereinten Nationen dazu auf, ein Waffenembargo gegen beide Parteien zu verhängen. Es gebe Hinweise darauf, dass Israel und Hamas aus dem Ausland stammende Waffen gegen Zivilisten einsetzten.

Israel wird in dem Bericht der illegale Gebrauch von Phosphorbomben und anderer von den USA gelieferten Waffen im Gaza-Streifen vorgeworfen, während Hamas für Raketenangriffe auf Israel verurteilt wird. »Die israelischen Angriffe hatten den Tod Hunderter Kinder und anderer Zivilisten zur Folge sowie die massive Zerstörung von Häusern und Infrastruktur«, sagte Donatella Rovera, die ein in den Gaza-Streifen entsandtes Amnesty-Team leitete. Ihre Gruppe habe Teile von Artilleriegeschossen, Panzergranaten sowie aus Flugzeugen abgefeuerten Raketen auf Spielplätzen, in Krankenhäusern und Wohnhäusern in Gaza gefunden. Die von Israel eingesetzten Waffen stammten vor allem aus den USA, hieß es in dem Bericht.

Israel wies den Bericht als »voreingenommen« und unprofessionell zurück. Er ignoriere völlig die Tatsache, dass Hamas eine Terrororganisation sei, die Israels Existenzrecht nicht anerkenne. Israel habe im Gaza-Streifen Waffen nur in Übereinstimmung mit dem internationalen Recht eingesetzt und sie wie andere westliche Armeen gebraucht. Die Armee habe nie absichtlich auf Zivilisten gezielt. Hamas habe sie dagegen wissentlich als Schutzschilde missbraucht.

In dem Amnesty-Bericht hieß es, auch im Süden Israels habe man Überreste von Raketen gefunden, die militante Palästinenser ohne Unterscheidung auf israelische Zivilgebiete abgefeuert hätten. Hamas wies den Amnesty-Bericht am Montag (23. Feb.) ebenfalls zurück. »Die Forderungen von Amnesty sind unausgewogen und unfair«, sagte Hamas-Sprecher Fausi Barhum. »Sie stellen den wahren Verbrecher und das Opfer auf eine Stufe.« Hamas habe keine Waffen aus dem Ausland erhalten, »während wichtige und große Staaten den zionistischen Feind mit Waffen versorgen«.

Quelle: Neues Deutschland, 24. Februar 2009

Suspend military aid to Israel, Amnesty urges Obama after detailing US weapons used in Gaza

White phosphorus shells traced back to America / Activists call for arms embargoes on both sides

by Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem

The Guardian, Monday 23 February 2009

Detailed evidence has emerged of Israel's extensive use of US-made weaponry during its war in Gaza last month, including white phosphorus artillery shells, 500lb bombs and Hellfire missiles.

In a report released today, Amnesty International detailed the weapons used and called for an immediate arms embargo on Israel and all Palestinian armed groups. It called on the Obama administration to suspend military aid to Israel.

The human rights group said that those arming both sides in the conflict "will have been well aware of a pattern of repeated misuse of weapons by both parties and must therefore take responsibility for the violations perpetrated".

The US has long been the largest arms supplier to Israel; under a current 10-year agreement negotiated by the Bush administration the US will provide $30bn (£21bn) in military aid to Israel.

"As the major supplier of weapons to Israel, the USA has a particular obligation to stop any supply that contributes to gross violations of the laws of war and of human rights," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa programme director. "To a large extent, Israel's military offensive in Gaza was carried out with weapons, munitions and military equipment supplied by the USA and paid for with US taxpayers' money."

For their part, Palestinian militants in Gaza were arming themselves with "unsophisticated weapons" including rockets made in Russia, Iran and China and bought from "clandestine sources", it said. About 1,300 Palestinians were killed and more than 4,000 injured during the three-week conflict. On the Israeli side 13 were killed, including three civilians. Amnesty said Israel's armed forces carried out "direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects in Gaza, and attacks which were disproportionate or indiscriminate". The Israeli military declined to comment yesterday.

Palestinian militants also fired "indiscriminate rockets" at civilians, Amnesty said. It called for an independent investigation into violations of international humanitarian law by both sides.

Amnesty researchers in Gaza found several weapon fragments after the fighting. One came from a 500lb (227kg) Mark-82 fin guided bomb, which had markings indicating parts were made by the US company Raytheon. They also found fragments of US-made white phosphorus artillery shells, marked M825 A1.

On 15 January, several white phosphorus shells fired by the Israeli military hit the headquarters of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza City, destroying medicine, food and aid. One fragment found at the scene had markings indicating it was made by the Pine Bluff Arsenal, based in Arkansas, in October 1991.

The human rights group said the Israeli military had used white phosphorus in densely populated civilian areas, which it said was an indiscriminate form of attack and a war crime. Its researchers found white phosphorus still burning in residential areas days after the ceasefire.

At the scene of an Israeli attack that killed three Palestinian paramedics and a boy in Gaza City on 4 January, Amnesty found fragments of an AGM114 Hellfire missile, made by Hellfire Systems of Orlando, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The missile is often fired from Apache helicopters.

Amnesty said it also found evidence of a new type of missile, apparently fired from unmanned drones, which exploded into many pieces of shrapnel that were "tiny sharp-edged metal cubes, each between 2 and 4mm square in size".

"They appear designed to cause maximum injury," Amnesty said. Many civilians were killed by this weapon, including several children, it said.

Rockets fired by Palestinian militants were either 122mm Grad missiles or short-range Qassam rockets, a locally made, improvised artillery weapon. Warheads were either smuggled in or made from fertiliser.

The arsenal of weapons was on a "very small scale compared to Israel", it said, adding that the scale of rocket arsenal deployed by Hizbullah in the 2006 Lebanese war was "beyond the reach of Palestinian militant groups".



The Guardian, Monday 23 February 2009


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