Amnesty International on Tuesday called for an International Criminal Court (ICC) inquiry into possible war crimes committed by Israeli forces and Palestinian militants during deadly fighting in Gaza in August.
Thirty-one civilians were among the 49 Palestinians killed during the three-day conflict in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, the Global Rights Group said in a new report.
The London-based organization urged the ICC to urgently investigate “all apparent war crimes committed during Israel’s August 2022 offensive” in the Palestinian enclave.
“Amnesty International has collected and analyzed new evidence of unlawful attacks, including possible war crimes, committed by both Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups,” it said.
The report describes a strike that hit the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing seven civilians.
The bombing was “probably caused by a rocket fired by Palestinian armed groups that failed,” Amnesty said.
Fighting began on August 5, when Israel targeted the Islamic Jihad militant group with alleged pre-emptive strikes to ward off attacks.
The Palestinian organization responded with rocket fire, which claimed no Israeli casualties.
Amnesty research found that an attack that killed five children in a cemetery was “probably carried out by an Israeli guided missile fired from a drone”.
A third incident that Amnesty said could amount to a war crime was an Israeli tank fire on a house in the southern area of ??Khan Yunis, killing a civilian.
The International Criminal Court has launched an investigation into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is expected to focus in part on possible war crimes committed during the 2014 Gaza conflict.
The inquiry is supported by the Palestinian Authority, but Israel is not an ICC member and disputes its jurisdiction.
The August violence followed four wars between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip since 2008.
The Palestinian enclave has been under a crippling Israeli-led blockade since 2007, imposed after the Islamist movement Hamas seized control of the area.
Hamas said its militants were not involved in the August conflict.
