Palestine and Israel 'guilty of war crimes'

AMNESTY International yesterday accused Israeli soldiers operating in the Palestinian territories of committing war crimes, including unlawful killings, torture, destruction of property, obstruction of medical assistance and targeting of medical personnel.

The London-based human rights group's report for 2004 also condemned the deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians by Palestinian militants as a crime against humanity.

The report said that over the past year, Israeli forces killed more than 700 Palestinians, including 150 children.

"Most were killed unlawfully in reckless shooting, shelling and air strikes in civilian residential areas; in extrajudicial executions and as a result of excessive use of force," the report said.

"Certain abuses committed by the Israeli army constituted crimes against humanity and war crimes."

It added that Israeli restrictions on Palestinians' movements caused poverty and unemployment, and that Israel had expanded illegal settlements.

The Amnesty report also condemned Palestinian violence, saying armed groups killed 109 Israelis in 2004, including 67 civilians, eight of them children.

"The deliberate targeting of civilians by Palestinian armed groups constituted crimes against humanity," it said.

In four years, 3,477 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 1,034 on the Israeli side.

The Israeli military would not comment. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the report seemed biased, and rejected accusations of war crimes.

Bassem Eid, head of the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, said the fact that Amnesty criticised both sides in the conflict was testament to its credibility and that any attacks on civilians were to be condemned.