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Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Amnesty International : ‘STRANGLING NECKS’ ABDUCTIONS, TORTURE AND SUMMARY KILLINGS OF PALESTINIANS BY HAMAS FORCES DURING THE 2014 GAZA/ISRAEL CONFLICT

[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: As expected, Amnesty International throws in its
traditional slanted line about Israel - an approach that essentially rejects
Israel's right to self defense and that insists Israel should surrender to
human shield tactics. The consequences of such a surrender are clear and
perhaps best illustrated by the consequences of the US approach towards IS
that is a notch higher in bowing to human shields than Israel's - reports
that only one in four US bombing missions against IS were completed. That's
right: three out of four missions to destroy important IS targets in Iraq
and Syria were canceled as a reward to the IS human shield tactic.]

‘STRANGLING NECKS’
ABDUCTIONS, TORTURE AND SUMMARY KILLINGS OF PALESTINIANS BY HAMAS FORCES
DURING THE 2014 GAZA/ISRAEL CONFLICT
First published in 2015 by Amnesty International Ltd Peter Benenson House
1 Easton Street
London WC1X 0DW United Kingdom
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde21/1643/2015/en/

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Hamas forces in Gaza committed serious human rights abuses, including
abductions, torture, and summary and extrajudicial executions with impunity
in 2014. To date, no one has been held to account for committing these
unlawful killings and other abuses, either by the Hamas de facto
administration that continues to control Gaza and its security and
judicial institutions, or by the Palestinian “national consensus” government
that has had nominal authority over Gaza since June 2014.

Hamas forces committed these abuses at the time of Israel’s 50-day
military offensive against Gaza, codenamed Operation Protective Edge,
which began on 8 July and ended on 26 August 2014. The offensive, the
third such punitive Israeli military operation against Gaza since 2008,
caused unprecedented damage and destruction to civilian life in Gaza.
According to the UN, Israel inflicted the highest number of civilian
casualties among Palestinians in a single year since it occupied the West
Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967.

Israeli military forces committed war crimes and other grave violations of
international law during Operation Protective Edge. Israeli air and ground
attacks killed more than 1,500 civilians, including more than 500
children, and caused massive destruction to civilian infrastructure. The
impact of this devastation has been exacerbated since Operation
Protective Edge by Israel’s continuing air, sea and land blockade of Gaza,
which it has imposed since 2007. The extent of the casualties and
destruction in Gaza wrought by Israeli forces far exceeded those caused by
Palestinian attacks on Israel, reflecting Israel’s far greater firepower,
among other factors. The war understandably caused public outrage in Gaza
against Israel and those who supported or condoned its offensive,
including other states and, specifically, Palestinians within Gaza who
were accused of acting as Israeli informants or “collaborators”. During the
period of Operation Protective Edge, Hamas and Palestinian armed groups
in Gaza committed war crimes by firing thousands of indiscriminate rockets
and other projectiles into southern Israel.

Amnesty International has been unable to send a delegation to visit the
Gaza Strip since the beginning of the July/August 2014 conflict. Amnesty
International consequently had to carry out research on this report
remotely, supported by a fieldworker based in Gaza. The organization
conducted interviews with former detainees, prisoners’ families, witnesses
to abuses, human right activists, journalists and others. Among other
documentation, it reviewed and analysed written reports of court
proceedings, medical reports, death certificates, public statements
issued by Hamas and Palestinian groups in Gaza. Amnesty International
wrote to the Palestinian authorities in December 2014 to request comments
on its findings, but received no response.

Within Gaza, Hamas forces also targeted Palestinians they accused of
assisting Israel. They subjected at least 23 people to summary,
extrajudicial executions. Six of these men, at least one of whom was
arrested during the conflict on suspicion of “collaboration” but never
formally charged, were extrajudicially executed in public on 22 August
2014. Three men died in custody in suspicious circumstances just a few days
after they were arrested and tortured. The fate and whereabouts of another
man whom Hamas forces detained and subjected to enforced disappearance in
the first week of Operation Protective Edge remains unknown more than
nine months after the conflict ended. In addition, a leading member of
Hamas, Ayman Taha, who had been held by the ‘Izz ad-Din al-Qassam
Brigades (al-Qassam Brigades) since January 2014 on suspicion of treason
but, to Amnesty International’s knowledge, was not presented with any
formal charges, appears to have been summarily killed. Hamas forces also
abducted or attacked members and supporters of Fatah, their main rival
political organization within Gaza, including former members of the
Palestinian
Authority (PA) security forces, torturing some of them.

This report documents 17 of the summary, extrajudicial executions
committed by Hamas forces during Operation Protective Edge. In six cases,
those executed had been sentenced to death by military courts in Gaza on
charges of “collaborating” with Israel brought under the Palestinian
Liberation Organization (PLO) Revolutionary Penal Code of 1979. However,
at the time of their execution they were still awaiting the outcome of
appeals against those death sentences. Two others had been convicted
and sentenced to prison terms, one to life imprisonment, and the other to
15 years. All eight had been sentenced after trials before courts whose
proceedings are unfair and fail to respect due process. Some alleged in
court that they were tortured in pre-trial detention and forced to
“confess” to “collaboration” with Israel. Eight other detainees facing
“collaboration” charges were taken out and summarily executed although
their trials had yet to be completed.

Prior to their executions, all of the victims were held by Gaza’s Hamas de
facto administration at Katiba Prison under the authority of the Gazan
Ministry of Interior as alleged “collaborators” with Israel; in most cases
known to Amnesty International, they faced charges under the PLO
Revolutionary Penal Code of 1979 but were still standing trial at the time
of their execution.

Hamas forces used the abandoned areas of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza
City, including the outpatients’ clinic area, to detain, interrogate,
torture and otherwise ill-treat suspects, even as other parts of the
hospital continued to function as a medical centre.

The report also describes other cases in which Hamas forces abducted,
torture or assaulted perceived opponents, particularly members of the
rival Fatah party and former members of the PA security forces in Gaza, in
some cases causing their deaths. These abuses too were committed with
impunity.

Many of the arrests looked more like abductions – with armed men in
civilian clothes, sometimes masked, who did not present identification or a
legal basis for arrest, forcing the suspects into a car and taking them
to locations unknown to their families. The suspects would often be beaten
in the car and the beatings would continue at the place of detention and
during the interrogation.

In every case Amnesty International has documented, it has uncovered
evidence of Hamas forces using torture during interrogation with the
apparent aim of extracting a “confession” from the detainee. Testimonies
indicate that victims of torture were beaten with truncheons, gun butts,
hoses, wire, and fists; some were also burnt with fire, hot metal or
acid. In several cases family members of victims described to Amnesty
International various injuries inflicted on the detainees, such as broken
bones – including of the spine and neck bones – trauma to the eyes, as
well as damage, punctures or burns to the skin.

The torture and summary killing of people in captivity – including
suspected “informers” or “collaborators” – are, when committed in the
context of an armed conflict, serious violations of international
humanitarian law, constituting war crimes.

The Palestinian authorities should ensure that allegations of such
crimes are impartially and independently investigated and bring the
perpetrators to justice in proceedings that fully respect international
fair trial standards and exclude the death penalty.
...

NO ACCOUNTABILITY

Amnesty International is greatly concerned that the Hamas de facto
administration in Gaza has not only failed to take action to stop and
prevent extrajudicial executions and other serious human rights abuses
perpetrated by its forces, but sought to justify and even facilitated or
encouraged them. Indeed, by affording the perpetrators total impunity, the
Hamas authorities have contributed to the creation of a climate of fear
and intimidation that deters many victims and their families from
reporting or even disclosing abuses committed against them, suggesting
that the true extent of abuses may be significantly greater than that
documented by Amnesty International and other human rights groups.

The unlawful killings of alleged collaborators and other serious abuses
during Operation Protective Edge that this report documents follow a
familiar pattern, echoing previous abuses committed by Hamas and
Palestinian armed groups during Israel’s military offensives against Gaza
in 2008-2009 and 2012. In November 2012, for example, members of the
al-Qassam Brigades extrajudicially executed seven Palestinians in two
separate incidents after taking them from the prison where they were held.
At least six of the seven had previously been sentenced to death by Hamas
courts that convicted them of spying for Israel but appeals that they
had lodged were still pending at the time of their killing.

Amnesty International has expressed concern over many years about the
climate of impunity for abuses committed by Palestinian security forces in
both the West Bank and Gaza, and the failure of both the PA and Hamas
either to prevent or to investigate their forces’ use of arbitrary
detention, torture, excessive force, and unlawful killings, and to hold
those responsible for such abuses to account through criminal
prosecutions, even when ample documentation exists.

...
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Hamas forces in Gaza, including Internal Security and the al-Qassam
Brigades, have committed serious violations of international law by
carrying out acts of abduction, torture and unlawful killings.

There is no justification, including during armed conflict, for torturing
and/or summarily killing detainees and suspects, whatever the crime they are
accused of. Individuals who are suspected of collaborating with or
providing information to Israel have the right to be free from torture and
arbitrary deprivation of life and liberty. Like any suspects they must
either be charged with a recognizably criminal offence and tried in
proceedings that conform to international fair trial standards (and without
the possibility of the death penalty) or be released. The torture and
summary killing of people in captivity – including suspected “informers”
or “collaborators” – are, when committed in the context of an armed
conflict, serious violations of international humanitarian law,
constituting war crimes.

The Palestinian authorities should ensure that the cases documented in
this report, among others, are investigated impartially and independently
and that, when sufficient admissible evidence exists, suspected
perpetrators are brought to justice in proceedings that fully respect
international fair trial standards and exclude the death penalty.
Palestinian authorities and factions, especially those with an armed
wing, must unequivocally denounce extrajudicial executions and summary
killings; all should co-operate fully with independent and impartial
investigative bodies and assist in bringing perpetrators to justice.

The international community can help break this cycle by supporting
international justice mechanisms. Palestine’s signature of the Rome Statute
and its declaration giving the International Criminal Court jurisdiction
from June 2014 open an opportunity for justice and reparation for victims
of crimes under international law in Israel and Gaza. That opportunity
must be seized before another bloody round of hostilities begins and
leaves new victims in its wake.

TO THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITIES

The Palestinian authorities should co-operate with independent and
impartial international investigative mechanisms, judicial or
non-judicial, including the Commission of Inquiry set up by the UN Human
Rights Council in July 2014 and any follow-up mechanisms established by the
Council, by offering complete access to relevant personnel, documents and
other material. They should seek to ensure that the cases documented in
this report, among others, are investigated impartially and independently
and that, wherever there is sufficient admissible evidence, suspected
perpetrators are brought to justice in proceedings that fully respect
international fair trial standards and without recourse to the death
penalty. They should also:

 Co-operate with any investigation of the International Criminal Court,
or national courts undertaking investigations under domestic universal
jurisdiction laws;

 Sign and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All
Persons from
Enforced Disappearance;

 Guarantee that victims, witnesses, and others who testify or
otherwise complain about human rights abuses will not be targeted,
harassed, or intimidated.

The Palestinian authorities in Gaza and all factions, especially those
with armed wings, should:

 Agree to the establishment of an independent, impartial and
non-partisan national commission of experts to investigate human rights
abuses committed by Hamas forces and any other parties, and pledge to
co-operate with such a commission and allow it to carry out its work;

 Undertake to take the necessary steps to address the findings and
recommendations of the investigation, which should be made public;

 Denounce summary killings and extrajudicial executions and make clear
that violations of international humanitarian law will not be tolerated;

 Immediately end any and all campaigns of abductions, deliberate and
unlawful killings, torture, and death threats in which their forces have
been engaged;

 Undertake to ensure that anyone against whom there is found to be
sufficient admissible evidence of responsibility for serious human rights
abuses is brought to justice in proceedings that conform to
internationally recognized fair trial standards and without recourse to
the death penalty.

To date, more than nine months after the end of armed conflict, neither
the Palestinian government in Ramallah nor the Hamas authorities in Gaza
have opened any investigations into the serious abuses under
international humanitarian law and international human rights law committed
by Hamas forces and Palestinian armed groups during the 50-day conflict,
nor held anyone responsible for those abuses to account. This failure to
investigate and to ensure accountability echoes the similar failure of the
Palestinian authorities to fulfil their international legal obligations in
relation to serious abuses committed by Hamas and Palestinian armed
groups during previous conflicts with Israel.
....

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