Amnesty slams “Israeli” rights abuses

Source: alalam.ir, 23-5-2007
LONDON -Amnesty International said Wednesday "Israeli" soldiers and Zionist settlers committed "serious human rights abuses" against the Palestinians in 2006 with impunity.
In its annual report, the rights group also said civilians bore the brunt of rising conflict last year between "Israelis" and Palestinians that saw a three-fold jump in Palestinians killed.
The number of "Israelis" killed fell by half, Amnesty International added.
The report said "‘Israeli' forces carried out indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on a large scale" during the 34-day Lebanon conflict last summer.
"‘Israeli' forces also appear to have carried out direct attacks on civilian infrastructure intended to inflict a form of collective punishment on Lebanon`s people."
The occupation`s air and artillery strikes martyred some 650 people, half of them unarmed civilians and including some 120 children, "a three-fold increase compared with 2005".
Much of the killing occurred in the Gaza Strip during a Zionist offensive launched after Palestinian resistance fighters captured a soldier in a deadly raid in late June.
"‘Israeli' soldiers and settlers committed serious human rights abuses, including unlawful killings, against Palestinians, mostly with impunity," said the Amnesty report.
The report said military blockades and increased restrictions imposed by the Zionist regime on the movement of Palestinians caused a significant deterioration in living conditions for Palestinian inhabitants.
The restrictions caused poverty, food aid dependency, health problems and unemployment to reach crisis levels, it added.
The Zionist regime blocked custom duties collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority after Hamas, which won a democratic election last year, came to power.
The US and the European countries imposed economic blockade on Palestine immediately after Hamas won a parliamentary election in January 2006 and formed government.