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Criticism by international watchdog groups over the increasing death toll in Gaza
mounted this week as the first legal actions inside Israel were
launched accusing the army of intentionally harming the enclave’s
civilian population.

The petitions – over attacks on
medical personnel and the shelling of United Nations schools in Gaza –
follow statements by senior Israeli commanders that they have been
using heavy firepower to protect soldiers during their advance on
built-up areas. “We are very violent,” one told Israeli media.

There is also growing evidence that Israeli forces have been firing
phosphorus shells over densely populated areas in a move that risks
violating international law by inflicting burns on civilians.

The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, meanwhile, called the
events in Gaza a “new Nakba”, referring to the catastrophe that
dispossessed the Palestinians in 1948. The Palestinian Authority
revealed that it was planning to seek the prosecution of Israel’s
leaders for war crimes in the international courts.

The legal challenges follow a wave of Israeli attacks on schools,
universities, mosques, hospitals and ambulances in the past few days.
The army claims the attacks are justified because the sites are being
used by Hamas fighters.

A petition to the Israeli courts was announced on Wednesday by Taleb al
Sanaa, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament, over the shelling on
Tuesday of a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp that killed at
least 40 Palestinians sheltering there.

UN officials, noting that they had passed on the school’s GPS
co-ordinates to Israel and that it was clearly marked with a UN flag,
insisted that only civilians had sought refuge at the school. The UN
has demanded an investigation.

Mr al Sanaa said the petition would name the prime minister, Ehud
Olmert, the foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, and Ehud Barak, the defence
minister, as the responsible parties. “Israel needs to decide whether
it wants to be a terrorist organisation like Hamas or respect
international law,” he said.

A further petition has been launched by eight Israeli human rights
groups, demanding that Israel’s Supreme Court ban the army from
targeting ambulances and medical personnel.

The petition cites a large number of cases in which Israel has fired on
ambulances, arguing that as a result medics have been unable to treat
the wounded or transport them to hospital.

Palestinian medics said 21 of their staff have been killed by Israeli
fire and many more wounded, according to reports on Al Jazeera TV. The
Al Durra hospital in Gaza City was hit on Tuesday, and a day later
three mobile clinics run by a Danish charity, DanChurchAid, were
destroyed.

The International Committee of the Red Cross dropped its usual
diplomatic language this week in denouncing Israel’s refusal to allow
medical teams to tend the wounded.

During a three-hour pause in the fighting on Wednesday rescuers managed
to reach the Zaytoun neighbourhood, south-east of Gaza City, that was
extensively bombed at the start of the week.

Four children were found close to starvation alongside 15 bodies,
including those of their mothers. Many other civilians were found dead
in the area, and others are believed still to be in hiding. Israeli
tanks were stationed nearby the destroyed buildings during the whole
period.

Pierre Wettach, a Red Cross spokesman, called Israel’s delay in
allowing a medical evacuation “shocking” and “unacceptable”. He added:
“The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not
assist the wounded.”

Physicians for Human Rights in Israel added its voice, criticising the
Israeli authorities for repeatedly ignoring requests to move seriously
wounded civilians.

The UN suspended its aid operations on Thursday after two of its
drivers were killed and others wounded by Israeli fire directed at one
of its relief convoys during another three-hour ceasefire.

John Ging, head of the UN relief agency in Gaza, said: “They were
co-ordinating their movements with the Israelis, as they always do,
only to find themselves being fired at from the ground troops.”

Palestinian sources and international observers warned that the death
toll among civilians is rising rapidly as Israel’s ground invasion
pushes deeper into Gaza.

Al Haq, a Palestinian legal rights group, warned that 80 per cent of
the more than 750 Palestinians killed in the fighting so far have been
civilians. According to figures cited by the World Health Organisation,
at least 40 per cent have been children. Another 3,000 Gazans have been
wounded.


Israeli commanders were reported in the Israeli media to be unsurprised
by the heavy toll on civilians of their latest actions, saying their
priority was to protect soldiers.

“For us, being cautious means being aggressive,” one told the Haaretz
newspaper. “From the minute we entered, we’ve acted like we’re at war.
That creates enormous damage on the ground.”

The newspaper said the government had taken into account the likely
high number of Palestinian civilian casualties when it approved the
ground operation a week ago.

Another soldier, identified as Lt Col Amir, told Israeli TV on
Wednesday: “We are very violent. We are not shying away from any method
of preventing casualties among our troops.”

Among the dubious tactics the army appears to be resorting to is use of
white phosphorus shells, which burn intensely on exposure to air
creating the firework-type explosions characteristic of Israel’s
shelling of Gaza.

Although the shells produce dense clouds of smoke to cover military
operations, they also cause severe burns on contact with skin.

Photographs of pale blue artillery shells lined up by tanks stationed
on the edge of Gaza have been identified as American-made phosphorus
munitions. Neil Gibson, a missiles expert for Jane’s, told the London
Times that the shells were an “improved model” that burned for up to 10
minutes.

Although such shells are allowed when used solely as a smoke screen,
they are banned as a chemical weapon if used as an anti-personnel
munition. Palestinian and international medics in Gaza have reported
large numbers of burns victims with injuries difficult to treat.

Yesterday, Amnesty International also accused Israeli soldiers of using
Palestinian civilians as human shields – a charge Israel has repeatedly
levelled against Hamas.

Malcolm Smart, a spokesman, said: “Israeli soldiers have entered and
taken up positions in a number of Palestinian homes, forcing families
to stay in a ground-floor room while they use the rest of their house
as a military base and sniper position.”

Jonathan Cook
is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books
are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to
Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine:
Israel's Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net.

A version of this article originally appeared in The National (www.thenational.ae), published in Abu Dhabi.

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