Amnesty International calls for an investigation into Israeli raids on Gaza

Baghdad, Today, Monday, Amnesty International called on the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into 'war crimes' in three Israeli air strikes in the central and southern Gaza Strip that led to the death of 44 Palestinian civilians, including 32 children, last April. Amnesty International official Erika Guevara Rosas said in a statement today that "these devastating strikes destroyed families and claimed the lives of 32 children," stressing that the organization's investigation provides "basic evidence indicating illegal attacks attributed to the Israeli army." Amnesty International interviewed 17 survivors and witnesses, visited a hospital where the wounded were being treated and took photographs of shrapnel. She added that in the three cases, 'the organization did not find any evidence of the presence of military targets in or around the sites targeted by the Israeli army,' noting that she has not yet received responses to its questions from the Israeli occupation army. According to Amn esty International, the April 16 raid on Al-Maghazi targeted a street where children were playing table ball, resulting in the deaths of 10 of them, aged between 4 and 15 years, and five men. In Rafah, on April 19, an air bomb hit the house of Abu Radwan, a retired employee, killing nine family members, including six children, according to the organization. On April 20, a raid destroyed Abdel-Al family's home in eastern Rafah, killing 20 people, including 16 children and four women, and wounding two other children. Amnesty International wrote that 'the International Criminal Court must open a war crimes investigation' into these three strikes. Israel continues the war despite orders from the International Court of Justice to stop the ground attack on Rafah, and to take immediate measures to prevent acts of 'genocide' and improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Israel ignores the International Criminal Court's intention to issue international arrest warrants against its Prime Minister and Defense Mini ster for their responsibility for 'war crimes' and 'crimes against humanity' in Gaza. For the 18th year, Israel has besieged the Gaza Strip, and its war forced about two million of its residents, numbering about 2.3 million Palestinians, to flee in catastrophic conditions, with severe scarcity of food, water and medicine. Source: National Iraqi News Agency