(JTA) — Amnesty International accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes during last summer’s war in Gaza.
The human rights organization in its 415-page annual report released Wednesday reiterated its claims from December that Israel’s assault on Gaza “was marked by callous indifference and involved war crimes.” The report said that Israel during its military operation last July and August carried out attacks on “inhabited homes, in some cases killing entire families, and on medical facilities and schools.”
However, the report also said that Hamas had committed war crimes by “firing indiscriminate rockets into Israel causing six deaths” and killing at least 23 Palestinian civilians that it accused of collaborating with Israel.
A spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the report biased, The Times of Israel reported, and said that Amnesty International has “completely disregarded the suffering of tens of thousands of Israelis, who for years — especially during Operation Protective Edge — were victims of Hamas rocket terror.”
The full report, which detailed human rights abuses in or by 160 countries — including the United States — criticized the United Nations and called 2014 a “devastating year for those seeking to stand up for human rights and for those caught up in the suffering of war zones.”
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