Human Rights Watch released a report today on the Israeli military’s use of drone-launched missiles during the war against the Gaza Strip. The report details multiple instances of Israel targeting civilians and suggests that the nation was not living up to international legal standards with respect to verifying the nature of its targets.
This was hardly the first time the first accusation of deliberate attacks on civilians during the war, which killed over 1,400 Gazans, most of them civilians. During the invasion, the Israeli military deliberately attacked UN operated facilities it knew were filled with civilians, as well as destroying a warehouse full of relief aid.
As it has with the scores of other critical reports of its behavior during the war, the Israeli military dismissed the latest report. They condemned the use of victims as sources, saying they were “clearly not impartial,” and dismissed the sources in general as “the Gaza propaganda system.”
The official statement from the military praised its own behavior during the war, saying it had gone out of its way to avoid harming civilians and ignoring the massive bodycount and ample evidence to the contrary.
Members of Israel’s invasion force had criticized the government’s policies publicly, saying they were extremely lax about the indiscriminate killing of civilians. The military announced a probe, but dismissed it days later, claiming the myriad of accusations were all “hearsay.”