HRW: IDF probe no substitute for real investigation

"The IDF's internal probe suggests that the Beit Hanoun tragedy can be chalked up to an errant volley of shells," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. "But a comprehensive investigation should start with questioning whether Israel had any business firing artillery shells into this civilian area to begin with."

Human Rights Watch said that the investigation should examine the policy that has led Israel to fire some 15,000 artillery shells into Gaza since September 2005, killing 49 Palestinian civilians and seriously injuring dozens more. A comprehensive investigation should identify issues of individual and command responsibility, including criminal responsibility, for any violation of international humanitarian law committed in the conduct of these artillery operations in northern Gaza.

"Israeli forces launched the artillery attack on Beit Hanoun at a time when their commanders knew, or should have known, that the risk of civilian deaths far outweighed any definite military advantage," said Whitson. "The IDF admitted that it relied on day-old information about Qassam rocket launches from Beit Hanoun when its forces shelled this densely populated civilian area."

According to the United Nations, at 5:35 a.m. on Wednesday, the IDF shelled northwest Beit Hanoun for 30 minutes, with about 12 to 15 high-explosive 155 millimeter artillery shells. Most of the victims came from the Athamna family, the majority of them women and children.

The IDF confirmed that it had fired 12 artillery shells at the site, having missed its intended target 500 meters away. An IDF spokesperson described the reason for the attack as "preventative" and said that the IDF was seeking to "disrupt and thwart the launching of Qassam rockets into Israel." The spokesperson said that the basis for picking the target was intelligence that Qassam rockets had been "launched yesterday" (Tuesday) from the site.

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