The blood of innocents

Israel enjoys overwhelming military superiority over its Palestinian enemies, but there was no military or indeed any other logic to yesterday's killing of 18 people, at least 14 of them members of one sleeping family, in the northern Gaza Strip. International and regional reactions to the carnage were grimly predictable. The US called on Israel to exercise "restraint", noting its "regret" at civilian casualties and the launch of an inquiry into how a residential area had come under artillery fire. The EU said it was "appalled". The Palestinian movement Hamas called for swift retaliation. Islamic Jihad promised suicide bombings. Sadly, only the latter statements carried much conviction.
Fifty other Palestinians killed in the preceding week of Israeli operations in the area included civilians as well as fighters who have been provocatively firing home-made Qassam rockets across the border. Yesterday's victims were all civilians and mostly women and children. Their deaths will fan the flames of a conflagration in danger of getting out of control.
Experience suggests that even if the Beit Hanoun slaughter turns out to have been accidental, and Palestinians were to accept that, it will still be remembered as an Israeli atrocity. Israel's critics acknowledge that it has the right to defend itself - and it can only be by chance that rockets launched from Gaza since the August 2005 withdrawal have caused only damage and injuries and no Israeli fatalities. But Israel's actions, as in Lebanon this summer, have ignored the obligation to act in proportion to the threat, to avoid civilian casualties, and comply with international humanitarian law, which includes the personal responsibility of commanders for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Louise Arbour, the UN human rights commissioner, should formally remind the Israeli government of those principles when she visits Gaza and Jerusalem shortly.
This violence is not only a terrible reminder of the dangers of deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. It also deepens the crisis further by bringing an unnecessary suspension of talks between Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas on the formation of a national unity government, needed to prompt the US and EU to ease their sanctions and end the debilitating siege of more than a million Gazans. It is hard too in this atmosphere to see progress in negotiations on the release of an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas. It bears repeating that there are no military solutions to this conflict. Those who ignore that will always end up staining their hands with the blood of innocents.
LeaderThursday November 9, 2006
The Guardian