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28 May 2003 13:25:30
GMT
| By Gwen Ackerman
JERUSALEM, May 28 (Reuters) - The human rights group Amnesty
International accused the Israeli army of war crimes and Palestinian
militants of crimes against humanity in its annual report released
on Wednesday.
It recommended that international human rights monitors be
sent to the region, noting that their presence "could have saved
both Palestinian and Israeli lives."
Citing "a deepening of the human rights crisis" since a
Palestinian uprising for independence began in September 2000,
Amnesty said at least 1,000 Palestinians were killed by Israeli
soldiers in 2002 and most of the killings had been unlawful.
During the same period, Amnesty said, Palestinian militant
groups killed more than 420 Israelis, at least 265 of them
civilians.
"The deliberate targeting of civilians by Palestinian armed
groups constituted crimes against humanity," Amnesty said.
Ismail Haniyah, a leader of the Islamic militant Hamas group
which has spearheaded a suicide bombing during the uprising, called
the Amnesty report unfair.
"It's an unjust review of the Palestinian people's right to
resist the occupation on the land of Palestine," Haniyah said. "The
slaughterer and the victim cannot be treated as equal."
Amnesty said the Israeli army had "committed abuses which
constituted war crimes".
It listed them as unlawful killings, the killing of medical
personnel and obstruction of medical assistance, extensive and
wanton destruction of property, torture and inhumane treatment,
unlawful confinement and the use of 'human shields'.
Israel had no immediate comment on the report.
Amnesty said the human rights crisis in Israel and the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, where Israel has tightened its military grip,
was "among the issues most discussed -- and least acted upon -- by
the international community."
The Palestinians have repeatedly called for international
observers to be sent to the region but Israel has opposed this.
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