RAMALLAH – An international human rights organization Friday accused Israel of violating the laws of war in its bombing of a home that killed 12 Palestinian civilians during its aggression on the Gaza Strip. The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said: “The Israeli claim that the attack on the Dalou home was justified is unsupported by the facts.” HRW special advisor Fred Abrahams called on Israel to explain its actions. On Nov. 18, Israeli forces dropped what appears to have been a large aerial bomb on the three-story home of the Dalou family in Gaza City, killing 10 members of the household – one man, five women, and four children. A young man and an elderly woman of the Muzannar family next door were also killed. In addition to the 12 deaths in the Dalou and Muzannar families, the airstrike wounded at least nine civilians in the area, and badly damaged or destroyed three other homes. Egypt mediated a ceasefire deal which ended eight days of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip and hundreds of Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel. The conflict saw 175 Palestinians and six Israelis killed. Israeli army's spokesperson Lt. Col. Avital Liebovitch initially told the international media the bombing targeted a senior member of the Hamas armed wing, whom he identified as Yahya Abayah, but another army's spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai later announced the airstrike had killed Mohammed Dalou, calling a “known terror operative.” HRW research suggested the man was a high-ranking civilian Hamas police officer. The group said neither Abayah nor Dalou were listed as killed on the websites of Hamas and Islamic Jihad's armed wings, which posts the names of its fighters killed in conflict with Israel. The Israeli army did not respond to a request from Human Rights Watch for more information to support the claim that Mohamed Dalou was directly participating in hostilities, Human Rights Watch said. “Even if Dalou, a low-ranking police officer, was a legitimate military target under the laws of war, the likelihood that the attack on a civilian home would have killed large numbers of civilians made it unlawfully disproportionate,” Human Rights Watch said. “Israel's belated effort, once it could scour the list of victims, to defend the attack by naming a civilian police officer found among the dead suggests an after-the-fact attempt to justify the unjustifiable,” Abrahams said. “Disproportionate attacks are serious violations which Israel has an obligation to investigate. Victims of laws of war violations and their families should be promptly and adequately compensated. Anyone responsible for deliberately or recklessly committing a serious violation of the laws of war should be prosecuted for war crimes.” “Israel needs to explain why it bombed this house filled with civilians,” Abrahams said. “Anyone who violated the law should be appropriately punished.”
