They left behind their own unique detritus: bullet casings, roasted peanuts in tins with Hebrew script, a plastic bag containing a “High Quality Body Warmer”, dozens of olive-green waste disposal bags, some empty, some stinking full – the troops’ portable toilets.
But most disturbing of all was the graffiti they daubed on the walls of the ground floor. Some was in Hebrew, but much was naively written in English: “Arabs need 2 die”, “Die you all”, “Make war not peace”, “1 is down, 999,999 to go”, and scrawled on an image of a gravestone the words: “Arabs 1948-2009”.
There were several sketches of the Star of David flag. “Gaza here we are,” it said in English next to one.
The genocidal nature of the Israeli invasion of Gaza was designed to kill, intimidate or humiliate the civilian population. Any Hamas killed would probably be considered an unintended consequence; the primary target was the civilian population and the Israelis would use any means necessary. Those means meant that many were, are, illegal.
On 17 January, a number of white phosphorous shells struck the yard of an UNRWA school in Beit Lahia, causing panic among the 1,600 civilians who had taken refuge there. While evacuating the shelter, an explosive shell struck the third floor of the school, killing two brothers, aged five and seven, and injuring 14 others including the boys’ mother. UNRWA has demanded an independent investigation into this incident. A total of more than 50 UN facilities have sustained damaged since 27 December. There are no bomb shelters in the Gaza Strip, and no alarm systems to warn of impending bombardment.
The Israelis knew where everyone of the UN facilities were and who was in them….civilian refugees fleeing the bombardment or advancing Israeli army. The claim that white phospherous was used was responded to by the Israelis that the use of all military munitions was in accordance with international conventions. A rather dastardly response which further indicates how Israelis view Palestinians in general as all being terrorists.
1. It is prohibited in all circumstances to make the civilian population as such, individual civilians or civilian objects the object of attack by incendiary weapons.
2. It is prohibited in all circumstances to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by air-delivered incendiary weapons.
3. It is further prohibited to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by means of incendiary weapons other than air-delivered
incendiary weapons, except when such military objective is clearly separated from the concentration of civilians and all feasible precautions are taken with a view to limiting the
incendiary effects to the military objective and to avoiding, and in any event to minimizing, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.
Israel agreed to the above conditions when it signed the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, but obviously doesn’t abide by it, or has a very loose definition of what is a civilian. In the case of Palestinians there are none.
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