ByJosh Jackman, Josh Jackman
Israel has forcefully rejected claims by Amnesty International that its army committed war crimes in the latest Gaza conflict, alleging that the NGO "serves as a propaganda tool for Hamas and other terror groups".
The Israeli Embassy in London condemned Amnesty for its "extreme bias" and for "producing no evidence" to back up allegations in a new report, entitled 'Families under the Rubble: Israeli attacks on inhabited homes'.
The 47-page dossier focuses on eight attacks by the IDF which Amnesty said caused the deaths of "at least 104 civilians, including 62 children".
The NGO said that "several of the attacks directly and deliberately targeted civilians or civilian objects, which would constitute war crimes".
Philip Luther, Amnesty's Middle East director, said: "Israeli forces have brazenly flouted the laws of war by carrying out a series of attacks on civilian homes [and] displaying callous indifference to the carnage caused."
Campaigns chief: Israel like jihadis
Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty's campaigns manager in the UK, compared Israel to Islamic State in a tweet this week. He wrote: Israeli regimes [sic] response to our Gaza report: Amnesty is 'a propaganda tool for Hamas & other terror groups' (#JSIL?)
The tag #JSIL is used on Twitter to compare Israel with the terror outfit by replacing 'Islamic' with 'Jewish' in the group's common alias, ISIL. When contacted, Amnesty said: This tweet was made in a personal capacity by a member of staff. It's being investigated internally.
Benedict also caused a storm in December 2012 when he tweeted about three Jewish MPs: Louise Ellman, Robert Halfon and Luciana Berger walk into a bar... each orders a round of B52s … #Gaza. The B52, an alcoholic drink, was named after a US bomber.
An Israeli spokesman called the report "narrow" and "decontextualised". He added that it "does not mention the word 'terror' in relation to Hamas or other armed Palestinian groups, nor does it mention tunnels built by Hamas to perpetrate terror attacks." Despite omitting these points, the report did say: "Palestinian armed groups also committed war crimes, firing thousands of indiscriminate rockets into Israel."