Amnesty: 'Israeli forces committed war crimes'

On Wednesday, the human rights watchdog released its findings of illegal Israeli activities carried out during an incursion on August 1, 2014, also known as "Black Friday" and considered one of the controversial days of last year's Gaza war.

"There is strong evidence that Israeli forces committed war crimes in their relentless and massive bombardment of residential areas of Rafah in order to foil the capture of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, displaying a shocking disregard for civilian lives," said Philip Luther, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Amnesty.

"The ferocity of the attack on Rafah shows the extreme measures Israeli forces were prepared to take to prevent the capture alive of one soldier – scores of Palestinian civilian lives were sacrificed for this single aim," Luther noted.

The human rights watchdog worked with Forensic Architecture, a research team at Goldsmiths, University of London, to stitch together the events surrounding an assault that left at least 135 civilians dead in a few hours time.

'Buildings become evidence'

Forensic Architecture used architectural techniques, including 3D modeling and two-point perspective, to verify the time and location of numerous aerial and ground strikes.

"The evidence for us is not within any single image. It is only through the architectural model that we are able to see the relation between images," Ezal Weizman from Forensic Architecture told Thomas Reuters Foundation.

Using satellite imagery, photos, videos and eye witness accounts, Forensic Architecture created a 3D model of Rafah throughout the incursion to better examine attacks, such as the use of two one-ton bombs in the densely populated area of eastern Rafah by Israeli forces on "Black Friday."

"When violence takes place in cities, people die in buildings, and buildings become evidence," Weizman said.

'False narrative'?

Meanwhile, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs lashed out at Amnesty and Forensic Architecture's analysis, calling it "a false narrative."

"It seems that Amnesty forgot that there was an ongoing conflict - during which the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] was operating to stop rocket fire and neutralize cross-border assault tunnels, and Palestinian terrorist organizations were actively engaging in intensive conflict against the IDF from within the civilian environment," said a statement from the ministry.

The Gaza conflict between Hamas and Israeli forces left more than 2,200 Palestinians dead, including more than 500 children.

ls/kms (AFP, Reuters)