Citing war crimes committed against civilians by both sides in last month’s war in the Gaza Strip, Amnesty International urged in a report today that the international community impose an arms embargo on both the Israeli government and the Hamas government, as well as other militant factions that took part in the war.
The report points out that foreign-supplied weapons were used against civilians by both sides, and singled out the United States in particular as a major supplier of weapons to the Israeli side. They confirmed that the white phosphorus shells used in densely populated civilian areas were produced in the United States and that the manner of their use constituted a war crime.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry condemned the report, saying it “ignores the basic fact” that Hamas is recognized by the West as a terrorist group. They also repeated their claim that they did not intentionally target civilians, and insisted that the ample reports to the contrary were made up by civilians under Hamas pressure.