Israeli military bombed the buildings housing the offices of Al-Quds TV and Al-Aqsa TV, 18 Nov. 2012

21 November 2012

On November 18, 2012, at 2 am, an Israeli aircraft struck the offices of Al-Quds TV, located on the 11th and top floors of the Shawwa- Husari Building in Gaza City. The same building hosts the offices of dozens of news agencies and satellite services. Later that same morning, at 7 am, airplanes also struck the a-Shuruk Building, on the 15th and top floor of which Al-Aqsa TV maintains its offices. The same building hosts the offices of the television networks and news agencies of Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Jordan, Russia, and Spain, as well as the offices of Sky News, Al-Arabiya, and France24 Arabic.

In a statement issued by the IDF Spokesman immediately following the first attack, on the a-Shuruk Building, the Israeli military stated that the attack had been directed at “antennas used by Hamas for military operations against the State of Israel in the northern Gaza Strip.” In a later statement, the IDF Spokesman clarified that both attacks were directed against the communications infrastructure of Hamas, which it claims Hamas uses to communicate operational instructions and disseminate propaganda.

B’Tselem's investigation indicates that several Al-Quds TV employees were present in their offices in Shawwa-Husari Building at the time of the attack, as they were under the assumption that the Israeli military would not bomb it. A missile fired from an Israeli aircraft went through the roof of the building and hit their offices. At least six of the employees were injured, two of them seriously. The injured were taken to the ninth floor, where they awaited ambulances, as other employees descended to the building’s ground floor. About a quarter of an hour after the first explosion, as the injured were being loaded on ambulances, the roof of the building was struck a second time. In this attack, a photographer who had gone to the roof to document the damage caused in the first airstrike was injured

B’Tselem has gathered testimony from employees of a production company located on the ninth, 13th and 14th floors of the a-Shuruk Building. They report that after the attack on the Shawwa- Husari Building, they removed some of their equipment from their building’s top floors, out of concern that the Israeli army would strike that building as well, because of the location of Al-Aqsa TV’s offices on its 15th floor. The employees descended to the ninth floor, but after several hours, returned to their offices on the 14th floor. At about 7 am, several missiles struck the offices of Al-Aqsa Television on the 15th floor, and broke through to the offices of the production company on the 14th floor as well, causing extensive damage. Two journalists standing in the entrance to the a-Shuruk Building were injured by falling debris. Other offices in the building were damaged by the missiles’ blast.

B’Tselem is not in a position to determine whether there is any basis for the IDF Spokesman’s claim regarding the military’s justification for these attacks., However, international humanitarian law is very clear on the subject: Neither reporters nor any other civilians may be intentionally targeted, and every feasible precaution must be taken to protect them from the impact of hostilities. Additionally, the media – including those belonging directly to the parties to the conflict – are not legitimate military targets, even if they are used to disseminate propaganda. Where there exists any doubt as to whether or not a target is military or civilian – that target is to be presumed to be civilian.

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21 March 2012

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The Gaza Strip

B’Tselem calls for ceasefire in Gaza Strip

In more than 70 days of war in Gaza, Israel has waged an unconstrained attack on the population that includes bombing on an unprecedented scale. Thousands of tons of bombs have been dropped on thousands of targets throughout Gaza, with the IDF Spokesperson clarifying that “the emphasis is on damage, not accuracy.”The results on the ground are clear: large areas in the Strip are no longer habitable. Thousands of homes have collapsed, some with the occupants inside, while roads, public structures and infrastructure lie in ruins. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, nearly 19,000 people have been killed, about 70 percent of them women and children; some 50,000 people have been injured, and many are buried under the rubble.The provisions of international humanitarian law require that every one of the bombed targets be defined a military objective that makes an “effective contribution” to Hamas’ actions, and that its destruction offer Israel a “definite military advantage.” Even if the thousands of targets Israel has struck meet these criteria, the law requires that the resulting harm to civilian life and property be proportionate. Yet there is no way to reconcile Israel’s strikes with these rules. Any claim to the contrary is not only legally flawed but morally unacceptable. Throughout the war, Hamas has used residents of Gaza as human shields, hidden weapons in their homes, used tunnels it dug under their homes to protect its operatives, and fired at civilian targets in Israel from within the civilian population. By doing so, Hamas has endangered the lives of civilians in Gaza, in breach of international humanitarian law. Israel argues that therefore, any harm it inflicts upon Hamas necessarily entails harm to civilians, through no fault of its own. Yet this means that any Israeli action, horrific as its outcomes may be, would always be considered legitimate. Such an assertion is legally and morally baseless: the party carrying out the killing is responsible for the outcome, and Hamas’ actions in no way absolve Israel of responsibility for the consequences of its actions.While implementing this bombing policy, Israel also closed all the crossings in and out of Gaza at the beginning of the war. More than two million residents were left without fuel, electricity, drinking and bathing water, food and medication. Even before the war, after 17 years of blockade, among other things, Gaza was in the throes of a humanitarian crisis: the power, water, and sewage infrastructure was verging on collapse, the healthcare system was barely functional, unemployment was at about 40 percent, and 80 percent of Gazans depended on humanitarian aid. Given this reality, crossing the closings plunged the Strip into an inconceivable humanitarian catastrophe – not a side effect of the war, but a direct policy move on Israel’s part. Almost 1.9 million people – about 85% of the population in Gaza – are now concentrated in the southern area of Rafah, huddling together in UNRWA facilities. These facilities are overcrowded and lack basic conditions, with extreme shortages of water, food, blankets, mattresses, restrooms and showers. Living in such conditions significantly increases the risk of epidemics and disease outbreaks, which have already occurred in some places.Water is lacking throughout Gaza, and UN agencies are also reporting an extreme shortage of food to the point of famine, especially in northern Gaza. Most hospitals have collapsed, and the rest are only partially functioning, at twice or even three times their capacity while facing shortages of electricity, water, medications, basic medical equipment and staff. The scant aid that Israel allows into Gaza is a drop in the ocean and cannot be transported to those in need due to the incessant bombing, Israeli restrictions on the movement of trucks, and the crowds filling the streets.Israel launched the current attack on October 7, after hundreds of Hamas operatives and other residents of Gaza entered Israel, firing in every direction. They made their way into civilian communities and homes, shot and killed entire families and partygoers, burned down homes with the inhabitants inside, raped and sexually assaulted women, kidnapped families and committed other horrors. More than 1,200 people were killed that day and thousands injured. About 250 people, including babies, children, women and the elderly, were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. Some have since been released, others died in captivity, and others are still being held hostage – according to released captives, in harsh conditions without enough food and medication. These crimes cannot be justified. Any attempts to excuse them as part of a “struggle for national liberation” or for “decolonization”, or to justify them on other grounds, must be rejected and condemned. In light of these events, Israel cites its right to self-defense as justification for the current attack on Gaza. It is Israel’s obligation to protect its citizens from Hamas, which continues to launch rockets into Israel and promises more attacks to follow October 7. However, the right to self-defense does not confer the right to employ unlimited, indiscriminate violence, nor does it allow parties to ignore the provisions of international humanitarian law and commit war crimes. Israel certainly cannot rely on this right to justify a policy that does away with any protection of civilians and assumes there are no bystanders in Gaza.Since the beginning of the war, Hamas and Israel have demonstrated flagrant disregard for the rules of international humanitarian law. Continuing the fighting in these circumstances will inevitably lead to hundreds more civilians killed every day. The extreme crowding means that almost any Israeli airstrike or ground action results in a high death toll. This is certainly compounded by the fact that Hamas is operating from within the civilian population, displaying indifference to their lives. Clearly, the more Israel urges the population to move south, the greater the danger will grow, as will the humanitarian catastrophe. The inescapable conclusion is that continuing the war will entail more human rights violations and more war crimes, and the fighting must therefore be stopped immediately to prevent further harm to civilians.The international community must step in to protect the civilians on both sides. It must demand that until a long-term arrangement is in place, Israel cease military operations, allow unlimited entry of humanitarian aid and goods into Gaza, enable its reconstruction and permit residents to return home. The international community must also demand that Hamas unconditionally release all the people kidnapped on October 7 and cease rocket fire on Israel. Finally, the international community must ensure that all those responsible for the serious violations of international humanitarian law are held accountable.

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The Gaza Strip

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On Saturday, 2 December 2023, Israel bombed the neighborhood of Shuja’iyeh in Gaza City. The IDF Spokesperson declared that the goal was to kill Wissam Farhat, defining him as “the commander of Hamas’ Shuja’iyeh Battalion” who “led the battalion in Operation Protective Edge,” participated in planning attacks on Israelis, “took part in planning the ruthless attack in Israeli territory on 7 October, and sent the Nukhbah terrorists to the kibbutz and outpost of Nahal Oz that day.”According to initial reports, the strike killed dozens of people and destroyed scores of residential buildings. Hundreds of people are still buried under the rubble. Given the outcome, there is no doubt the strike was unlawful. Every attack – even against a legitimate military target – must comply with the principle of proportionality, which requires an attack to be aborted if existing information indicates the expected harm to civilians outweighs the anticipated military advantage. Interpreting the outcome of this bombing as proportionate empties this principle of meaning.Israel relies on two main arguments to justify the extensive criminal harm to civilians caused by its policy. Both arguments are unfounded and detached from international humanitarian law and from its objectives.First, Israel claims that it is doing everything in its power to avoid harming civilians, but, since Hamas is hiding behind civilians and using them as human shields, any strike against it entails harm to civilians through no fault of Israel’s. This would mean that Israel is under no limitation and that any action it takes, however horrifying the consequences, is legitimate. Hamas is violating international humanitarian law, and especially the obligation to distinguish between civilian and military targets, by firing at Israeli civilians from within the civilian population in Gaza, hiding weapons in civilian homes and digging tunnels under them. However, this does not release Israel of its own obligations under international law. The interpretation put forward by Israel completely overlooks the rule that one party’s violation of these provisions does not release the other party from its obligation to uphold them.Second, Israel says it has warned all civilians in areas it attacks to evacuate to areas it has designated as “safe.” This implies that Israel assumes no civilians are left in the areas it ordered evacuated, meaning it is free to operate without taking care not to harm civilians. This claim has no foothold in reality. The fact is that many civilians have remained in their homes, either because they cannot reach southern Gaza for various reasons or because they choose not to leave. 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Some 1.8 million people have been displaced from their homes and are crowding together in inhumane conditions, without enough food, water or medication.The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Karim Khan, who recently visited Israel and the West Bank, emphasized that Israel must act according to the rules that always apply to armed conflicts. He noted that warfare in densely populated areas, where armed individuals are allegedly hiding among civilians in breach of the law, is indeed complex and challenging, yet cannot justify disregarding the provisions of international humanitarian law. 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