Creative-i

24 March 2009

A Palestinian boy stands next to his family's house in Gaza, destroyed during Israel's offensive

A new report details the gory killing of a family by Israeli unmanned drones, which can allegedly differentiate civilians from combatants.

While Tel Aviv claims that its unmanned aerial vehicles are able to clearly distinguish fighters from women and children and other civilians, more than 48 Palestinian civilians were killed in Israeli drone attacks in Gaza, a new report by the Guardian reveals.

In one of the most heartbreaking cases, a Palestinian family of six was killed in Gaza City while sitting around and having tea in their courtyard.

Mounir al-Jarah, whose sister along with her husband and their four children were killed in the attack, says he will never forget the horrifying scene he witnessed on the 16th of January.

“We found Mohammed lying there, cut in half. Ahmed was in three pieces; Wahid was totally burnt – his eyes were gone. Wahid’s father was dead. Nour had been decapitated. We couldn’t see her head anywhere,” explained Mounir.

“You cannot imagine the scene: a family all sitting around together and then, in a matter of seconds, they were cut to pieces. Even the next day we found limbs and body parts on the roof, feet and hands,” he added.

Fatheya, one of the few surviving members of the family who has slipped into grief-stricken madness following the tragic event, says she does not know what they had done to deserve such a plight.

A Gazan girl stands on the rubble of her destroyed house in Gaza after an Israeli bomb destroyed her home and killed her father, mother, two brothers and a sister.

“There were rocks and dust and fire … It’s very difficult … I can’t, no matter how I try to explain my situation to you, picking up the pieces of my dead family … I couldn’t handle it, limbs and flesh all around me. What have we done to deserve this?” said the 17-year-old Fatheya.

While Israeli officials have refused to confirm whether it uses armed drones over Gaza, the deputy commander of the first Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) squadron, Major Gil, has told an Israeli army magazine that Tel Aviv used the drones to carry out attacks in Gaza only to protect the Israeli soldiers.

The drones — fitted with pinpoint accurate missiles — are operated from a remote position with optics that can interpret even the details of a man’s clothing.

“When there were innocent people around, we would wait for the terrorist to leave the child and then hit him,” he said.

Contrary to the Israeli claim, Amnesty International has confirmed that a group of girls and women in an empty street, two small children in a field and many others were also killed in Israeli drone attacks during the three-week-long Gaza war.

The report of Palestinians casualties in drone attacks comes only days after Israeli soldiers confessed to the wanton killing of civilians as well as intentionally destroying civilian property during their Gaza operations.

The shocking accounts are seen as evidence to war crimes and the massive violations of human rights by the Israeli army during the military campaign.

International organizations and UN human rights investigations assert that the Israeli army deliberately used forbidden ammunition, such as depleted uranium and deadly white phosphorus shells, in densely populated civilian areas.

UN high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay said most Israeli actions against the Gazan population “appear to have all the elements of war crimes”.

Other charges against Tel Aviv include the “reckless and indiscriminate” shelling of residential areas, the use of Palestinian families as human shields and the unrelenting attacks on several medical facilities and UN compounds in the area.

UN high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay has said that most Israeli actions against the population of Gaza "appear to have all the elements of war crimes".

Despite countless allegations, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has yet to take action against Israel over its military conduct in Gaza.

HE/AA