In recent days, Israeli military forces, striking at targets in the Gaza Strip, have killed at least two Palestinian children and tens of other civilian bystanders, according to an April 11th statement by human rights organization Amnesty International.
On April 10, Israeli artillery shells fired at the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia fell on the home of seven-year old Hadeel Ghaban, killing her. Other members of her family, including her mother and 12 siblings, were also injured in the attack.
On April 7, an Israel air strike killed five-year old Bilal Abu al-Einein and his 14-year old brother and their father as they stood next to a car. Israeli military officials said that car carried members of an armed group known as the Popular Resistance Committee. Israeli government officials have publicly vowed to use military strikes to kill members of groups like this.
On March 6, 14-year-old Ahmed al-Sweifi and Ra'ed and Mahmud al-Batash, aged 11 and 17, were killed in Gaza City by an Israeli missile strike as they walked near a car purported to be carrying members of an armed Palestinian group.
Since the beginning of the year, Amnesty reports, 15 Palestinian children have been killed and dozens injured in Israeli military attacks throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. All told, 75 Palestinians have been killed and scores wounded by Israeli military forces in the same period.
While many of those killed were reported to be members of armed Palestinian groups, most "were targeted while they were not involved in armed attacks or confrontations," says Amnesty.
The indiscriminate killing and wounding of children prompted Amnesty to express doubt about the sincerity of public expressions of regret by Israeli military and government officials over the killing of innocent civilians in military strikes.
According to Amnesty, government pronouncements "ring hollow as repeated attacks by Israeli troops on densely populated residential areas continue to claim the lives of Palestinians, including children, in situations where they pose no threats to the lives of Israelis."
Amnesty described the Israeli military's actions as "extrajudicial executions as a substitute for arrest and prosecution of Palestinians involved in attacks against Israelis."
"Hundreds of bystanders have been killed in such attacks," Amnesty noted, "in addition to the targets of the attacks."
Amnesty called "on the Israeli army to end immediately its air bombardments and shelling of civilian residential areas in the Gaza Strip."
While the statement described attacks on Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip by Palestinian armed groups as "unlawful" and also called for them to end, it also emphasized that "Israeli forces, for their part, must put an immediate end to the frequent, disproportionate and excessive use of force against Palestinians."
"Such attacks," Amnesty concluded, "continue to cause death and injury to Palestinian children and other bystanders, and constitute violations of international law."
