Omar Shakir Profile picture
Israel and Palestine Director, Human Rights Watch (@hrw). Formerly @theccr & @slshumanrights.

Jul 27, 2021, 8 tweets

Breaking: @hrw finds that Israeli strikes in May killed scores of civilians in Gaza, wiped out entire families w/ no evident military targets in area & amount to apparent war crimes that @IntlCrimCourt should probe. Hear the harrowing accounts of survivors hrw.org/news/2021/07/2…

In one strike @hrw investigated, guided missile witnesses saw approach from Israel killed 6 kids as they played & 2 adults near Beit Hanoun. Israel said it was a Palestinian rocket, but offered no evidence & included one victim among ppl they said were killed. All were civilians.

In another, a US-made guided bomb destroyed a building in al-Shati refugee camp, one of world’s most densely populated areas, killing 2 women & 8 of their young kids as they slept, leaving only one surviving kids from each family. @hrw found no evidence of military target there.

In another, Israeli airstrikes that used US-made munition guidance kits caused 3 Gaza City buildings to collapse, killing 44 civilians, including 18 kids & 11 members of Abu al-Awf family. Israel presented no evidence of tunnels or underground command center it said were targeted

The hostilities took place amid Israel’s sweeping 14-year closure of Gaza & discriminatory efforts to remove Palestinians from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem—which are part of Israeli authorities' crimes against humanity of apartheid & persecution hrw.org/news/2021/04/2…

Based on its research, @hrw calls on US, whose weapons Israeli forces used in at least two of the unlawful attacks we investigated, & other states to condition military/security assistance & arms sales to Israel on it taking concrete & verifiable actions to end its grave abuses

The @IntlCrimCourt Prosecutor & Commission of Inquiry set-up by UN Human Rights Council should examine unlawful attacks by Israeli forces & Palestinian armed groups during the May hostilities & their larger context, including the crimes against humanity of apartheid & persecution

Today's @hrw report the first in a series of publications on the May hostilities. We will soon release findings on other events, including rocket attacks by Palestinian armed groups, Israeli airstrikes that destroyed high-rise towers in Gaza & other events across Israel/Palestine

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