Amnesty: US-Made Weapon Used in Gaza Strikes that Killed 43 Civilians
By Staff, Agencies
An Amnesty International investigation revealed that US-made munitions were used in two “Israeli” air strikes in Gaza in October that killed 43 civilians.
The human rights organization said its members discovered distinctive remnants of the munition amid the debris of demolished homes in central Gaza after two strikes that killed 43 civilians, including 19 children, 14 women, and 10 men.
The investigation revealed that the survivors in both instances had received no warning of the impending airstrikes.
On 10 October, a strike targeted the al-Najjar family residence in Deir al-Balah, resulting in the deaths of 24 people. On 22 October, an “Israeli” airstrike also hit the Abu Mu’eileq family home in the same city, killing 19 people.
“The fact that US-made munitions are being used by the ‘Israeli’ military in unlawful attacks with deadly consequences for civilians should be an urgent wake-up call to the Biden administration,” Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general said.
“The US-made weapons facilitated the mass killings of extended families,” she said.
“Two families have been decimated in these strikes, further proof that the ‘Israeli’ military is responsible for unlawfully killing and injuring civilians in its bombardment of Gaza.”
Amnesty reported that its team of weapons experts and a remote sensing analyst conducted an analysis using satellite imagery and photographs of the affected homes. The investigation revealed that US-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions [JDAM] were used by the “Israeli” military in two air strikes in Gaza. JDAM is a guidance kit that converts existing unguided bombs into precision-guided “smart” munitions.
The visuals revealed fragments of ordnance recovered from the rubble and depicted the extent of the destruction. The images were captured by Amnesty’s fieldworkers as part of the investigative process.
“In the face of the unprecedented civilian death toll and scale of destruction in Gaza, the US and other governments must immediately stop transferring arms to ‘Israel’ that more likely than not will be used to commit or heighten risks of violations of international law,” Ms Callamard said.
“To knowingly assist in violations is contrary to the obligation to ensure respect for international humanitarian law. A state that continues to supply arms being used to commit violations may share responsibility for these violations,” she added.
Amnesty’s investigation stated that the air strikes in question constituted either deliberate assaults on civilians or civilian structures or indiscriminate attacks and hence the global human rights organization is urging for a thorough investigation into these incidents, claiming that such actions should be investigated as war crimes.
“The organization found that these air strikes were either direct attacks on civilians or civilian objects or indiscriminate attacks,” the report says, calling for the attacks to be investigated as “war crimes”.
The US provides an average of $3bn in military aid to the apartheid “Israeli” entity every year. In response to Hamas’s 7 October Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against the entity, the Biden administration sought an extra $10.6bn in military aid.
The US State Department and the Pentagon said that they were reviewing the Amnesty report.
The “Israeli” entity started its war on Gaza on October 7 after resistance groups launched Operation al-Aqsa Flood in response to the regime’s intensified crimes against Palestinians.
The entity has also blocked supply of water, food, electricity, and medicines to Gaza, plunging the coastal area into a humanitarian crisis. The regime has been defying global calls for a ceasefire as well.
More than 16,000 Palestinians have been killed in the US-backed war, most of them women and children.
