Initial Findings: Civilians killed in "Protective Edge"

Bombing family homes of activists in armed Palestinian groups violates international humanitarian law

Since the Israeli military launched Operation Protective Edge in the early hours of 8 July 2014, the IDF Spokesperson and media sources have reported deliberate attacks against the homes of senior activists in armed Palestinian groups. The IDF Spokesperson reported that 11 such homes were attacked. According to media reports, the defense establishment intends to continue attacking the homes of senior Hamas activists. The reports state that the bombings are being carried out with the “knock on the roof” procedure, whereby the military fires a small missile at the house it intends to bomb as warning, expecting inhabitants to leave the premises, and then bombs the house to destruction. In some cases, military representative call the family and instruct them to evacuate the house.

Even if uninvolved civilians are not injured, these houses are not legitimate military targets, and attacking them is a grave violation of international humanitarian law. The gravity of the violation is compounded when uninvolved civilians are injured. Until now, B’Tselem has documented one case in which civilians were in a house bombed after a prior warning missile was fired:

The Kaware’a family home in Khan Yunis

On 8 July 2014, at around 1:30 P.M., the military called the Kaware’a home, informed the family that the house was to be bombed, and instructed them to leave the premises. The three-story building, owned by Ahmad Kaware’a, consists of seven apartments belonging to Kaware’a and his sons. One son, ‘Odeh Kaware’a, is an activist in Hamas’ military wing. At first, the family members obeyed the instruction to leave the house, but they gathered outside it with dozens of other persons. At approximately 2:50 P.M., a missile fired from an unmanned aerial vehicle struck the solar water tank on the roof of the building. Several minutes later, family members and neighbors began to go up to the roof. At 3:00 P.M., a missile was fired at the building from an F-16 fighter jet. At that stage, four persons were on the roof and other people were in the stairway or in the courtyard, on their way to the roof. The roof collapsed under the bombing, killing eight people, six of them children. Another 28 people were injured, ten of them sustaining severe injuries.

The persons killed:

Hussein Yusef Kaware’a, 13

Bassem Salem Kaware’a, 10

Muhammad ‘Ali Kaware’a, 13

‘Abdallah Muhammad Kaware’a, 12

Siraj Iyad ‘Abd al-‘Al, 8

Qassem Jaber ‘Adwan Kaware’a, 12

‘Amar Muhammad Judah, 20

Muhammad Ibrahim Kaware’a, 50

Bombing the homes of senior activists in armed groups violates international humanitarian law, which provides a narrow definition of what constitutes a legitimate target and permits aiming attacks only at targets that effectively assist military efforts, when damaging them can provide a military advantage. Treating these homes as legitimate targets is an unlawful, distorted interpretation of the concept, resulting in harm to civilians, whom this body of law is intended to protect.

remainder: http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20140709_bobming_of_houses_in_gaza