A new investigation by Amnesty International reveals Israeli forces failed to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimise harm to civilians sheltering at camps for internally displaced people while carrying out two attacks targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders and fighters in the south of the occupied Gaza Strip in May. These attacks likely were indiscriminate, and one attack likely also disproportionate. Both attacks should be investigated as war crimes

Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters were located in the IDP camp, a location which displaced people believed was a designated “humanitarian zone,” knowingly endangering the lives of civilians. Their choice of location in both IDP camps likely violated the obligation to avoid, to the extent feasible, locating fighters in densely populated areas. Amnesty International has no information regarding the reason or motivations for their presence, but all parties to the conflict should have taken all feasible precautions to protect civilians and civilian objects.

“The Israeli military would have been fully aware that the use of bombs that project deadly shrapnel across hundreds of metres and unguided tank shells would kill and injure a large number of civilians sheltering in overcrowded settings lacking protection. The military could and should have taken all feasible precautions to avoid, or at least minimise, harm to civilians.

The Israeli military has said, including in responses to media, that it is “investigating” the strikes. Consistent documentation by Israeli and international human rights organizations has shown that the Israeli military, through its own internal mechanisms, has failed to effectively and impartially investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian law against Palestinian civilians.

On Tuesday 28 May, at approximately 2.45pm, the Israeli military launched at least three tank shells at a location in the al-Mawasi area of Rafah – designated for months by the Israeli military as Gaza’s “humanitarian zone” – which killed 23 people and injured many more.

The concentration of civilians in small areas of Gaza has been exacerbated by the successive waves of mass displacement, coupled with Israel’s ongoing illegal blockade that restricts the movement of people seeking safety outside Gaza. These conditions make it all the more important that the parties to the conflict strictly adhere to the rules of international humanitarian law which aim to protect civilians from the effects of military operations.