#victimes

Mali : les attaques contre les populations civiles se multiplient - Afrique - RFI

▻http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20150131-mali-attaques-populations-civiles-enlevements/?ns_mchannel=fidelisation&ns_source=newsletter_rfi_fr_afrique&ns_campaign=email&

http://scd.rfi.fr/sites/filesrfi/dynimagecache/0/85/5126/2896/1024/578/sites/images.rfi.fr/files/aef_image/a0148-000749_0.jpg

Alors que les affrontements entre différents groupes armés n’ont pas cessé dans le nord du Mali, ce sont les attaques contre les populations civiles qui se multiplient. Deux villages ont été attaqués, vendredi et dans la nuit de vendredi à samedi. Au moins un mort et des enlèvements.

Dans des cas, les groupes armés attaquent des populations dans le nord du Mali pour se ravitailler. C’est ce qui vient de se passer dans la localité de Bamba.

Trois à quatre véhicules arrivent nuitamment dans ce gros village. Méthodiquement, des hommes armés défoncent des boutiques fermées, appartenant aux commerçants. Au total 34 boutiques pillées, des vivres emportés : du lait, du thé, du sucre, des cigarettes, et du riz notamment. Quatre motos ont été également enlevées.

#mali #djihadisme

Le rapport de l’ONG israélienne B’Tselem sur "les conséquences morales et juridiques des attaques sytématiques d’immeubles d’habitation dans la bande de Gaza à l’été 2014" vient de paraître. Versions en hébreu, arabe et anglais.

Black Flag : The legal and moral implications of the policy of attacking residential buildings in the Gaza Strip, summer 2014 |
▻http://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/201501_black_flag

#gaza#israel#justice#victimes

La #montagne tue plus les hommes que les femmes, davantage les locaux que les touristes | c’est vraiment intéressant et comme je le répète sans cesse, l’#escalade est un #sport très sûr
▻http://www.lepoint.fr/chroniqueurs-du-point/nathalie-lamoureux/la-montagne-tue-plus-les-hommes-que-les-femmes-davantage-les-locaux-que-les-

http://www.lepoint.fr/images/2015/01/21/sipa-3059643-jpg_2675938.JPG

Aussi bien en #alpinisme qu’en #randonnée pédestre, les hommes s’engagent davantage que les femmes dans des situations périlleuses, en partant seuls, hors des sentiers balisés. Parmi les #victimes secourues entre 2003 et 2012 par le PGHM sur le massif du Mont-Blanc, les hommes sont non seulement surreprésentés (74 % des personnes), mais également surexposés au risque de #décès (81 % des décès). Les plus de 50 ans le sont encore plus. En randonnée, l’âge élevé des victimes combiné au fait que les seniors constituent la seule tranche d’âge où le nombre de secours augmente reflète le #vieillissement des adeptes de la pratique. Bien que pratiquant autant que les hommes, les femmes décèdent largement moins que ces derniers (3,5 décès masculins pour 1 féminin). Par ailleurs, leur « pic de #vulnérabilité » se situe à un âge plus jeune, entre 48 et 57 ans, et dans une moindre mesure de 38 à 47 ans.
Activités à #risque

L’indice de #mortalité le plus élevé concerne le base jump (47 %), suivi par l’ULM (38 %) et les sports en eau vive (35 %). L’activité la moins risquée est l’escalade à l’école (2 %). À noter que la chasse, la pêche et le ramassage des champignons ne sont pas sans danger. Pour 100 pratiquants donnant lieu à l’intervention des gendarmes de haute montagne, 23 décès sont constatés.

#statistique #genre

The Dahiya Doctrine, Proportionality, and War Crimes | The Institute for Palestine Studies
▻http://palestine-studies.org/jps/fulltext/186668

On 19–20 July 2014, elements of the elite Golani, Givati, and paratrooper brigades launched an assault along three axes into the Shuja‘iya district of #Gaza City on the eastern side of the city center. The Golani brigade in particular met fierce and unexpected #resistance that resulted in thirteen Israeli soldiers being killed and perhaps a hundred wounded. According to American military sources, over a period of twenty-four hours during this operation, eleven Israeli artillery battalions, employing at least 258 of these artillery pieces, fired over seven thousand shells into this single neighborhood. This included forty-eight hundred shells during one seven-hour period: nearly seven hundred shells an hour, or over eleven per minute. A senior Pentagon official “with access to the daily briefings” called this amount of firepower “massive” and “deadly.” He described this “huge” amount of firepower as that which would normally be used by the U.S. Army in support of two entire divisions comprising forty thousand troops. Another, a former American artillery commander, estimated that the U.S. military would employ that number of guns only in support of an army corps of several divisions. A retired American lieutenant general described the bombing frenzy as “absolutely disproportionate.”4 It bears repeating that this enormous amount of firepower was used in the span of about twenty-four hours for an artillery bombardment of just one Gaza neighborhood that was simultaneously being pounded by massive air strikes.

(...)

Random occurrences cannot explain such devastation, nor can this honestly be called regrettable “collateral damage.” To believe that is to willfully suspend belief and to ignore the nature of the weapons used—and, equally important, it is to ignore Israel’s established military doctrine. The wholesale killing and mangling of over thirteen thousand people, most of them defenseless civilians, and the wanton destruction of the homes and property of hundreds of thousands of people, are in fact fully intentional. They are the fruits of a sinister strategy implemented by the Israeli military at least since the 2006 assault on Lebanon, which goes by the name “Dahiya doctrine.” (...) After an entire southern suburb of Beirut, known as the Dahiya, had been devastated from the air by troops under his command using two-thousand-pound bombs and other similar ordnance, #Eizenkot explicitly laid out what this doctrine entailed in 2008. He stated: “What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on. . . . We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases . . . . This is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved.”6
 
Not only was the strategy precisely the one Israel used in Lebanon in 2006, it is the very same that has now been deployed against Gaza for the third time in the past six years. (...) Not surprisingly, one found little mention of the Dahiya doctrine whether in statements by U.S. politicians, or in the reporting of the war by most of the mainstream American media, which dwelt on the description of Israel’s actions as “self-defense.”

#doctrine_dahiya #Liban #Israel #crimes #Israël #victimes_civiles

#Délire d’#assassins,
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/01/israel-hezbollah-syria-golan-heights-iran-attack-convoy.html

Maj.-Gen. (res.) #Giora_Eiland, a former national security adviser, told me Jan. 19 that the mistake made by #Israel in its prior round of fighting was that it agreed to isolate #Hezbollah from Lebanon and only fought the terrorist organization, without harming the host state. Eiland said the next time Israel will need to make it very clear that any fire or terrorist attack coming from Lebanon will constitute a declaration of war of the Lebanese government on Israel and will be dealt with accordingly. Hezbollah must know that it can no longer light the candle on both ends and that Lebanon will pay a very steep price in the next conflagration.

“Dahiye Doctrine” co-author in Israeli military still doesn’t get it: Broad attacks on Lebanon undermined Israel in 2006 war
▻https://mideastwire.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/dahiye-doctrine-co-author-in-israeli-military-still-doesnt-ge

Of course – the great mistake Israel made early in the 2006 war was indeed widely targeting Lebanon and not just Hizbullah. In fact this approach ended up rapidly consolidating support FOR hizbullah, at a moment when the party could have been dangerously isolated!

#doctrine_dahiya #Liban #Israël #victimes_civiles #Eiland

Evolution and Debates about the Concept of Terrorism
By #Remi_Brulin
▻http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/20574/evolution-and-debates-about-the-concept-of-terrori

The Unresolved Issue of State Terrorism

On 4 October 1985, by a vote of fourteen yeses and with the United States abstaining, the Security Council adopted Resolution 573, which “condemned vigorously the act of armed aggression perpetrated by Israel against Tunisian territory.” That time, Washington did not use its veto but, as Vernon Walters explained, it continued to “recognize and strongly supported the principle that a State subjected to continuing terrorist attacks may respond with appropriate use of force to defend itself against further attacks.” As the outcome of that vote makes clear, Israel and the United States continued to stand squarely outside the international consensus on the illegality of the use of force against third-party states to avenge acts of terrorism. But international disagreements ran deeper: to non-Western countries, Israel’s raid amounted to “state terrorism” and should be condemned just as strongly as acts of “terrorism” by non-state actors.

Thus, after noting that his country had “often unequivocally condemned terrorism of every kind and from whatever source,” the Tunisian representative insisted that “nothing can justify this act of terrorism committed by and duly acknowledged by the Government of a Member State against another Member State.”

Over the next couple days, all non-Western members of the Security Council similarly argued that Israel’s raid was criminal, contrary to international law and an act of “state terrorism.” Indeed, the initial draft of the October 1985 resolution contained an explicit condemnation of Israel’s raid as a form of “state terrorism.” It was only under the threat of a US veto that these words were removed from the final text, as were the call for sanctions and, remarkably, an explicit reference to “Tunisian and Palestinian civilian casualties.”

When the question of “international terrorism” was first put on the agenda of the General Assembly in late 1972, discussions focused on the absence of a clear, agreed-upon definition of “terrorism.” Non-western countries expressed worry that, if the term was left undefined, it would be used by Israel, the United States, apartheid South Africa, Portugal (which still retained colonial possessions in Africa), and others as a way to de-legitimize any and all uses of force by “national liberation movements” while justifying their own uses of military force. They insisted that efforts to fight terrorism required that the concept be defined, and that such definition should apply to all political actors, covering violence against civilians by states as well as non-state actors. This would remain their position for the following decades.

#histoire #terrorisme #terrorisme_d'etat #Etats-Unis #victimes_civiles

Une carte interactive des meurtres commis par l’extrème droite en Allemagne

Opfer Rechter Gewalt
▻http://service.tagesspiegel.de/opfer-rechter-gewalt

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Plein d’âneries dans Le Parisien sur le vélo, qui reprend les arguments foireux des assureurs.

▻http://rue89.nouvelobs.com/2014/12/08/a-parisien-les-mauvais-arguments-contre-les-mauvais-cyclistes-25645

#vélo #sécurité

L’école des soignants : L’éthique biomédicale : définition, principes et exemples tirés de « Docteur House »
▻http://ecoledessoignants.blogspot.ca/2014/12/lethique-biomedicale-definition.html

Si vous n’êtes pas médecin, vous allez peut-être vous dire "Tout ça nous fait une belle jambe, les médecins « non-éthiques » se comportent comme ils veulent."

Et je vous répondrai :
La plus grande arme de ceux qui oppriment, c’est de laisser croire à leurs #victimes qu’elles ne peuvent rien contre eux.

L’un des leviers (implicites) des praticiens abusifs est l’idée selon laquelle leur « autorité morale » l’emporterait sur les décisions du #patient. Or, il n’en est rien.

Les règles éthiques sont précisément là pour dire que le #médecin n’est pas « moralement supérieur » au patient qu’il soigne. Au contraire : il est soumis à des règles beaucoup plus strictes qu’un non-professionnel de santé. Ses obligations éthiques sont également des obligations légales : ainsi, les règles édictées par le code de #déontologie médicale français figurent à l’intérieur du Code de la #Santé Publique, ce qui veut dire qu’elles ont force de #loi. Ainsi, par exemple, l’obligation d’informer n’est pas « affaire d’opinion » mais une obligation légale. Lorsqu’un médecin se comporte de manière contraire à l’#éthique, il se disqualifie en tant que professionnel de santé et face à la loi. Le patient est alors en #droit, moralement et légalement, de résister, voire d’attaquer.

Beaucoup de praticiens indélicats le font de manière d’abord involontaire ; ils ont été formés comme ça (la « culture » des facultés de médecine déforme les futurs médecins), et ils changent d’attitude quand les patient.e.s leur indiquent clairement qu’ils/elles ne tolèreront pas que ça se produise de nouveau. Or, pour le faire, il faut être sûr.e d’être dans son bon droit – d’où cet article et ceux qui suivront. Etre convaincu.e qu’il n’est pas acceptable de se faire traiter de manière désagréable ou humiliante, c’est le début du changement.

Si certains médecins se comportent de manière inacceptable, c’est parce qu’ils se pensent intouchables. Ils se trompent. En France, déposer une plainte au tribunal de police, c’est gratuit, et ça a beaucoup plus de poids qu’une lettre au Conseil de l’Ordre. Quand plusieurs patients d’un même médecin portent plainte, ça ne passe jamais inaperçu.

Massacre de Polytechnique : 25ème anniversaire ! Communiqué de presse du mercredi 3 décembre 2014 | Osez le féminisme
▻http://www.osezlefeminisme.fr/article/massacre-de-polytechnique-25eme-anniversaire-communique-de-presse-du

Ce crime de masse n’est pas l’œuvre d’un déséquilibré, il ne s’agit pas d’un coup de folie. Marc Lépine avait prémédité son acte masculiniste, et laissé une lettre-testament contenant le nom de 19 femmes féministes, que Lépine dit ne pas avoir eu le temps de tuer. Le massacre de Polytechnique est un féminicide, c’est-à-dire un assassinat commis par homme ciblant des femmes, parce qu’elles sont femmes, parce qu’elles avaient prétendu à des études prestigieuses et scientifiques.

Les féminicides ne sont pas des actes isolés : l’ONU parle de 200 millions de femmes « manquantes » à l’échelle planétaire. 200 millions de femmes tuées par des hommes en raison de leur sexe. Les féminicides recouvrent plusieurs réalités : violences machistes conjugales, intra-familiales, viols et assassinats de femmes, néonaticides de petites filles, etc.

#féminicide

#Bangladesh : After Fire, Companies Evade Compensation

Bangladesh: After Fire, Companies Evade Compensation Two Years On, #Tazreen Catastrophe Victims Still Lack Assistance

http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/scale-300x/media/images/photographs/2013_Bangladesh_tazreen.jpg

#Israël/#Gaza : Israël a bombardé et anéanti des familles entières dans une froide #indifférence — Amnesty International Suisse
▻http://www.amnesty.ch/fr/pays/moyen-orient-afrique-du-nord/israel-et-territoires-occupes/docs/2014/israel-a-bombarde-et-aneanti-des-familles-entieres-dans-une-froide-indiffere

« Les forces israéliennes ont violé les lois de la guerre en menant une série d’attaques contre des habitations civiles, faisant preuve d’une froide indifférence face au carnage qui en résultait, a déclaré Philip Luther, directeur du programme Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord d’Amnesty International. « Notre rapport dénonce la pratique courante des attaques de maisons par les forces israéliennes, qui ont témoigné d’un #mépris choquant pour les vies des #civils palestiniens en ne les avertissant pas et en ne leur laissant aucune chance de s’enfuir. »

Israeli forces displayed ‘callous indifference’ in deadly attacks on family homes in Gaza | Amnesty International
▻http://amnesty.org/fr/node/50094

#Israel #victimes_civiles #impunité

Premières victimes civiles des frappes américaines
(l’autre morceau de l’article du Monde titré, à tout seigneur, tout honneur,
La coalition frappe trois nouvelles raffineries tenues par l’Etat islamique en Syrie)
►http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2014/09/28/la-coalition-frappe-trois-nouvelles-raffineries-tenues-par-l-etat-islamique-

Dimanche, l’organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) a annoncé que des bombardements aériens américains sur le nord-ouest de la Syrie avaient tué au moins sept civils.

Jeudi, l’armée américaine avait affirmé qu’elle « n’avait pas d’informations crédibles des sources opérationnelles » sur des morts de civils. Mais l’ONG de défense des droits de l’homme cite le témoignage de trois habitants de la province d’Idlib, selon lesquels au moins deux hommes, deux femmes et cinq enfants avaient été tués par des tirs de missiles mardi. Selon HRW, des images vidéo des bombardements confirment également que des civils ont été tués par des missiles de croisière américains Tomahawk.

« Les Etats-Unis et leurs alliés en Syrie devraient prendre toutes les précautions possibles pour éviter de toucher des civils, a déclaré le vice-directeur de HRW pour le Moyen-Orient, Nadim Houry. Le gouvernement américain devrait enquêter sur de possibles frappes illégales qui auraient tué des civils, rendre publiques les conclusions et s’engager à prendre des mesures en cas de mauvaise conduite. »

Enterrer les victimes d’#Ebola au #Liberia

Monrovia, 14 septembre 2014 (IRIN) - Alors que le nombre de #victimes d’Ebola ne cesse d’augmenter au Liberia, les membres des équipes d’#enterrement doivent composer avec les risques physiques et les traumatismes qui vont de pair avec l’#inhumation_sécuritaire des #morts. Ils sont par ailleurs souvent confrontés à la colère des populations locales.

▻http://www.irinnews.org/fr/reportfrench.aspx?ReportID=100608

#cadavres

Israël : une attaque du Hezbollah en préparation (armée) | i24news -
▻http://www.i24news.tv/fr/actu/international/moyen-orient/43797-140914-israel-une-attaque-du-hezbollah-en-preparation-armee

Des sources du commandement Nord ont révélé aux médias israéliens que la menace pourrait ressurgir

(...) Les sources ont précisé qu’il ne s’agissait pas là d’une menace imminente, mais qu’il fallait, en cas d’attaque, « se préparer à une longue guerre au nord ».

La frontière nord entre Israël et le Liban est une préoccupation grandissante de Tsahal, l’armée israélienne, où les membres de l’organisation, campés au sud Liban, constituent une menace directe et permanente pour les villages israéliens frontaliers.

▻http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4570917,00.html

#Afghanistan : pas de justice pour les milliers de #civils tués lors d’opérations menées par l’#OTAN et les #États-Unis | Amnesty International
▻http://www.amnesty.org/fr/news/afghanistan-no-justice-thousands-civilians-killed-usnato-operations-2014-08

Les familles de milliers de civils afghans tués par les forces américaines et de l’OTAN en Afghanistan ont été privées de justice, écrit Amnesty International dans un nouveau rapport publié lundi 11 août. Le rapport Left in the Dark, qui se penche principalement sur les frappes aériennes et les raids nocturnes menés par les forces américaines, y compris les forces des #opérations_spéciales, indique que même certains agissements qui semblent être des #crimes de guerre n’ont fait l’objet d’aucune enquête et restent impunis.

« Des milliers d’Afghans ont été tués ou blessés par les forces américaines depuis l’invasion, mais les victimes et leurs familles ont peu de chances d’obtenir réparation. Le système de #justice #militaire des États-Unis n’oblige presque jamais les soldats responsables d’#homicides illégaux et d’autres violations à répondre de leurs actes », a déclaré Richard Bennett, directeur du programme Asie-Pacifique d’Amnesty International.

(...)

Deux des études de cas, impliquant un raid des forces spéciales sur une maison dans la province de Paktia en 2010 et des disparitions forcées, des actes de torture et des exécutions dans les districts de Nerkh et Maidan Shahr (province de Wardak), de novembre 2012 à février 2013, rassemblent de nombreux éléments irréfutables indiquant que des crimes de guerre ont été commis. Personne n’a été poursuivi pénalement pour ces faits.

Qandi Agha, détenu par les forces spéciales américaines en Nerkh à la fin de 2012, a parlé des séances de torture quotidiennes qu’il a subies. « Quatre personnes m’ont battu avec des câbles. Ils m’ont attaché les jambes et frappé sur la plante des pieds avec un bâton. Ils m’ont frappé au visage et m’ont donné des coups de pied. Ils m’ont cogné la tête sur le sol. » Cet homme a également déclaré qu’il a été trempé dans un baril d’eau et soumis à des décharges électriques.

Qandi Agha a déclaré que des soldats américains et afghans ont participé aux séances de torture. Il a également expliqué que quatre des huit prisonniers détenus avec lui ont été tués alors qu’il était détenu par les forces américaines. Il a été témoin de l’homicide d’une de ces personnes, Sayed Mohammed.

#victimes_civiles

#Gaza crisis: a closer look at Israeli strikes on #UNRWA schools | World | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/08/-sp-gaza-israeli-strikes-unrwa-schools?CMP=twt_gu

Maghazi Prep School A & B
Date: 21 July 2014

Dead: 0 reported casualties

Wounded: 1 child

Sheltering: Approximately 1,000 internally displaced people prior to the first attack

What happened: At approximately 4.55pm, the school was struck by explosive ordnance “believed to have been fired by Israeli forces.” – UNRWA statement

Comment: “UNRWA condemns in the strongest possible terms the shelling of one of its schools in the central area of Gaza.” – UNRWA statement

IDF comment: “We are carefully reviewing all of these incidents.”

Maghazi Prep School A & B
Date: 22 July 2014

Dead: 0

Wounded: 0

Sheltering: Approximately 1,000 internally displaced people prior to the first attack

What happened: At about 10.30am, as UNRWA officials at the school investigated the 21 July incident, “there was further shelling of the school, seriously endangering the lives of UN humanitarian workers and displaced civilians.” – UNRWA statement

Comment: “This is a serious violation of United Nations’ premises that could have had far-reaching human consequences.” – Pierre Krähenbühl, commissioner-general of UNRWA

IDF comment: “We are carefully reviewing all of these incidents.”

Deir al-Balah Preparatory Girls School C
Date: 23 July 2014

Dead: 0

Wounded: 5

Sheltering: Approximately 1,500 internally displaced people

What happened: the school was reportedly struck at 7.45am

Comment: “This is the second time in three days that an UNRWA school has taken a direct hit from Israeli shelling and we again condemn this in the strongest possible terms.” – UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness

IDF comment: “We are carefully reviewing all of these incidents.”

Beit Hanoun Elementary Co-ed School A & D
Date: 24 July 2014

Dead: 15*

Wounded: 200, mostly women and children

Sheltering: Approximately 1,500 internally displaced people

What happened: According to survivors, at about 2.50pm, as the playground was crowded with families waiting to be ferried to safety, one shell landed in the schoolyard, followed by several more rounds that hit the upper storeys of the building.

Comment: “Today’s attack underscores the imperative for the killing to stop and to stop now.” – UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon

IDF comment: The Israeli military first claimed, in a text sent to journalists, that the school could have been hit by Hamas missiles that fell short, reported the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont.

IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner later said in an email to the Guardian: “In the matter of the Beit Hanoun school, the IDF encountered heavy fire in vicinity of the school, including anti-tank missile. We later determined that an errant mortar did indeed land in the empty courtyard of the school, backing this up with video evidence.”

Additional: The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont reported from the scene: “There was no visible evidence of debris from broken Palestinian rockets in the school. The injuries and the number of fatalities were consistent with a powerful explosion that sent shrapnel tearing through the air, in some cases causing traumatic amputations. The surrounding neighbourhood bore evidence of multiple Israeli attacks, including smoke from numerous artillery rounds and air strikes. One building was entirely engulfed by flames.”

We chose to use the number from the Guardian report, as the numbers of reported dead varied between 11 and 15.

Zaitoun Preparatory Girls School B
Date: 29 July 2014

Dead: 0

Wounded: 8

Sheltering: Approximately 2,200 internally displaced people

What happened: the school was reportedly struck

IDF comment: “We are carefully reviewing all of these incidents.”

Jabaliya Elementary Girls School A & B
Date: 30 July 2014

Dead: 21**

Wounded: more than 100, including women and children

Sheltering: Approximately 3,200 internally displaced people

What happened: School in Jabaliya refugee camp was hit by five shells during a night of relentless bombardment across Gaza.

Comment:

“Nothing is more shameful than attacking sleeping children. I condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms.” – UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon

“The shelling of a UN facility, that is housing innocent civilians who are fleeing violence, is totally unacceptable and totally indefensible.” – White House spokesman Josh Earnest

“The world stands disgraced” – Pierre Krähenbühl, commissioner-general of UNRWA

IDF Comment: “Regarding the UNRWA facility in Jabaliya, we have determined that an exchange of fire, including mortar fire, did indeed take place in the vicinity of the school.”

Additional:

“All available evidence points to Israeli artillery as the cause – Ban Ki-moon

Damage “likely to have come from heavy artillery not designed for precision use … [the IDF] provided no evidence of [militant] activity and no explanation for the strike beyond saying that Palestinian militants were firing about 200 yards away.” – New York Times investigation.

This New York Times investigation published several days after the strike occurred found the number of dead to be greater than that previously reported. We elected to use this number.

Rafah Boys Preparatory School A
Date: 3 August 2014

Dead: 11, “five were children between 3 and 15 years old”

Wounded: 27

Sheltering almost 3,000 internally displaced people

What happened: A projectile struck the ground 8-10 metres from open school gates at about 10.50am. Witnesses at the scene less than an hour after the explosion claimed it had been fired from one of the many unmanned Israeli drones. UN officials in Gaza described a “shelling incident” or an air strike.

Comment:

“The attack is yet another gross violation of international humanitarian law, which clearly requires protection by both parties of Palestinian civilians, UN staff and UN premises, among other civilian facilities. United Nations shelters must be safe zones not combat zones. The Israel Defence Forces have been repeatedly informed of the location of these sites. This attack, along with other breaches of international law, must be swiftly investigated and those responsible held accountable. It is a moral outrage and a criminal act.” – UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon

IDF comment: “In the Rafah School incident, the IDF targeted three Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants on a motorbike outside of the school. The targeted strike did indeed neutralise the militants on the targeted motorbike.”

#Israël #Israel #Crimes #victimes_civiles

How the Israeli discourse on terrorism seeks to justify blatant war crimes | Mondoweiss
▻http://mondoweiss.net/2014/08/discourse-terrorism-blatant.html

Par #Rémi_Brulin

In fact, in international institutions such as the United Nations, #Israel (alongside the United States) has repeatedly opposed efforts towards defining “terrorism” in a way that would differentiate between attacks against civilian and military targets, a basic historical fact that the US media has consistently failed to report.

The Israeli discourse on “terrorism,” just like the American discourse that it has so heavily influenced, is thus a fundamentally ideological discourse.

It is deeply incompatible with an enlightened understanding of the most basic principles of international law and, despite its claims to the contrary, profoundly weakens the protections the rule law affords to innocent, civilian life.

#Etats-Unis #terrorisme #victimes_civiles

Civilians in war
▻http://ottawacitizen.com/news/world/civilians-in-war

The law of armed conflict doesn’t directly define civilians except as non-combatants.

The official history of the civilian is that since the codification of the laws of armed conflict in the Hague and Geneva Conventions, civilians are increasingly protected by international law. Armed forces publicly declare the importance of protecting, sparing, and liberating civilians. Ideal civilians doesn’t exist. Where people live under military occupation figuring as liberation, they engage in nonviolent political action against foreign rule instead of patiently waiting for deliverance.

Underneath the official celebratory story about international law’s protection of civilians lurks another story: The codification of the international law of armed conflict in the late 19th and early 20th century has coincided with immense atrocities, not only in the two World Wars, but also in countless colonial wars that were not even recognized as wars.

International law has done little to curb this violence and much to hide it. For example, in 1925, in response to a Syrian revolt against the French “protectorate” under the auspices of the League of Nations, French troops bombed Damascus, a city that was not defended by anyone other than the French forces themselves, killing hundreds of residents. At the time, many international lawyers deplored the bombardment. Yet they also agreed that since this was a not an international war, but a domestic police action, the rules of international law don’t apply.

We have come a long way since the 1920s, but we need to remember that the international law of armed conflict was, by agreement of the colonial powers, not intended to protect colonized peoples from oppression . For example, the term civilian originally applied to white European servants and non-military personnel engaged in colonial rule. The colonial powers insisted on the protection of “their” civilians but did not legally recognize civilians among the people under their rule. Before civilians are killed, their civilian status is challenged or erased, and international law has been repeatedly called upon to justify these erasures.

We see echoes of this history in the Israeli Defence Forces’ persistent efforts to disqualify Palestinians from the status of civilian. Palestinians in Gaza live in inescapable proximity to Hamas combatants. They are exposed to the gaze of Israeli drones whose operators equate spatial proximity with association and guilt as well as to the terrifying force of Israeli bombs. They are also exposed to an international context in which many are quick to condemn the violence of non-state militaries like as Hamas and slow to condemn the violence of state armed forces like the IDF. When the footage of the boys killed on the beach emerged, we watched in horror. It is certainly wrong to kill children. Yet when we see children being shot dead, we also need to acknowledge the ways in which we have dehumanized and demonized their families and friends who are no longer children and whose deaths become less noteworthy because we are less convinced of their innocence.

International law is often championed as a tool against violence and dehumanization, but the history of international law is entwined with histories of colonialism, oppression and racism. When we turn to international law, we need to be cognizant of this past and ask ourselves how we use this law and this history: to lessen violence, or to justify it; to analyze oppression, or to gloss over it. We must pay attention to civilian casualties, and we must also pay attention to the ways that the categories of combatant and civilian are constructed.

#civils #droit international #victimes_civiles

Civils et hôpitaux victimes des violences dans l’est ukrainien - Europe - RFI

▻http://www.rfi.fr/europe/20140806-civils-hopitaux-victimes-violences-est-ukrainien/?ns_campaign=nl_MONDE060814&ns_mchannel=newsletter&ns_source=emailvision&ns_link

Donetsk, fief des séparatistes pro-russes, a été frappée dans la nuit de mardi à mercredi par une frappe aérienne ukrainienne. « Il n’y a pas de victimes parmi les civils », a précisé la mairie. Alors que l’armée ukrainienne semble préparer une offensive sur la ville séparatiste, les civils sont pris entre différents feux. Ceux qui le peuvent continuent de fuir, laissant craindre un exode massif. Dans tout l’est du pays, ravagé par les combats, les différents belligérants multiplient bavures et exactions, y compris contre les installations sanitaires.

▻http://scd.rfi.fr/sites/filesrfi/imagecache/rfi_16x9_1024_578/sites/images.rfi.fr/files/aef_image/2014-08-05T155523Z_1271649077_GM1EA851UA301_RTRMADP_3_UKRAINE-CRISIS_0.JPG

#ukraine #russie

#Victimes_civiles de #Gaza
▻http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/Gaza_Crisis_Appeal_2014.pdf

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BuRz1gNIMAAPDrv.png:large

The majority of these figures are valid as of 3 August 2014.

#crimes #Israël #Israel

Shibley Telhami : la tragédie de #Gaza : les #décès et #blessés représentent 7% de la population et les #déplacés 25%.
▻https://mobile.twitter.com/ShibleyTelhami/status/496068087389913088

#victimes_civiles

Les #Etats-Unis « consternés » par le bombardement d’une #école de l’ONU à Gaza - L’Orient-Le Jour
▻http://www.lorientlejour.com/article/879148/les-etats-unis-consternes-par-le-bombardement-dune-ecole-de-lonu-a-ga

#Netanyahu avait du insulté #Obama

« Les Etats-Unis sont consternés par le bombardement #honteux d’une école de l’#UNRWA (l’agence de l’#ONU pour l’aide aux réfugiés palestiniens, ndlr) à Rafah », a déclaré Jennifer Psaki dans un communiqué. « Nous insistons une nouvelle fois sur le fait qu’#Israël doit faire plus pour respecter ses propres standards et éviter les #victimes_civiles ».

Et ce n’est pas tout,
▻https://twitter.com/APDiploWriter/status/495995464396050435

Le fait qu’il soit soupçonné que des militants opèrent a proximité [des locaux de l’UNRWA] ne justifie pas des frappes qui mettent en péril la vie de tant de civils #innocents.

Et encore,
▻http://www.boursorama.com/actualites/washington-condamne-l-attaque-contre-une-cole-de-l-onu--gaza-95307b3096c

La porte-parole du Département d’État américain Jen Psaki a
également appelé à une enquête concernant les récentes attaques
menées contre des écoles gérées par l’UNRWA, l’agence de l’Onu
chargée de l’aide aux réfugiés palestiniens.

Nothing Unintentional « LRB blog- Nadia Abu El-Haj- 29 July 2014
Tags: #israel | #palestine
▻http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2014/07/29/nadia-abu-el-haj/nothing-unintentional

... imagine if Hamas were able to aim its rockets. Imagine it targeting the home of a high-ranking officer in the IDF, killing his wife and children, nieces and nephews, along with the family next door. Imagine these casualties being described as ‘collateral damage’ for which Hamas bore no legal or moral responsibility.

The IDF’s bombardment of Palestinian homes, schools and hospitals, indiscriminately pummelling the people of #Gaza into the ground, deserves to be called what it is: a war #crime.

#punition_collective #victimes_civiles #impunité #complicité

Hamas’s Chances
Nathan Thrall
▻http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n16/nathan-thrall/hamass-chances

Après les accords de cessez-le-feu du 21 Novembre 2012 non respectés par Israël, l’éloignement de l’axe Syrie Iran Hezbollah, le renversement de Morsi, l’activisme forcené anti frères musulmans de l’Arabie Saoudite et assimilés, l’impuissance de la Turquie et du Qatar, il ne restait plus au #Hamas, non sans appréhension, que de confier les clés de Gaza à #Mahmoud_Abbas. Et de fait, les coups bas de Abbas sous pression étasunienne, et cela avant même le meurtre des 3 Israéliens, ne se sont pas fait attendre.

Hamas paid a high price, acceding to nearly all of Fatah’s demands. The new PA government didn’t contain a single Hamas member or ally, and its senior figures remained unchanged. Hamas agreed to allow the PA to move several thousand members of its security forces back to Gaza, and to place its guards at borders and crossings, with no reciprocal positions for Hamas in the West Bank security apparatus. Most important, the government said it would comply with the three conditions for Western aid long demanded by the US and its European allies: non-violence, adherence to past agreements and recognition of Israel. Though the agreement stipulated that the PA government refrain from politics, Abbas said it would pursue his political programme. Hamas barely protested.

(...)

The fears of Hamas activists were confirmed after the government was formed. The terms of the agreement were not only unfavourable but unimplemented. The most basic conditions of the deal – payment of the government employees who run Gaza and an opening of the crossing with Egypt – were not fulfilled. For years Gazans had been told that the cause of their immiseration was Hamas rule. Now it was over, their conditions only got worse.

On 12 June, ten days after the new government was formed, an unexpected event radically changed Hamas’s fortunes. Three Israeli students at yeshivas in the West Bank were kidnapped and murdered. When their bodies were found, a group of Israeli Jews abducted a 16-year-old Palestinian outside his East Jerusalem home, doused him in petrol, and burned him alive. Protests erupted among Palestinians in Jerusalem, the Negev and Galilee, while the West Bank remained relatively quiet. Israel blamed Hamas for the murders of the yeshiva students, though several Israeli security officials have said they believe that the perpetrators didn’t act on orders from above.

In its search for the suspected murderers, Israel carried out its largest West Bank campaign against Hamas since the Second Intifada, closing its offices and arresting hundreds of members at all levels. Hamas denied responsibility for the abductions and said Israel’s accusations were a pretext to launch a new offensive against it. Among those arrested were more than fifty of the 1027 security prisoners released in 2011 by Israel in exchange for the Hamas-held Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. Hamas saw the arrests as another violation of the Shalit agreement, which had named conditions under which the released prisoners could be re-arrested and contained unfulfilled commitments by Israel to improve conditions and visitation rights for other Palestinian prisoners.

*The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah worked closely with Israel to catch the militants, and had rarely been so discredited among its constituents, many of whom believe abducting Israelis has proved the only effective means of gaining the release of prisoners widely regarded as national heroes. In several West Bank cities, residents protested against the PA’s security co-operation with Israel. A former minister of religious affairs who is close to Abbas went with his bodyguards to al-Aqsa Mosque; worshippers assaulted them, and they had to be hospitalised. When an Abbas emissary was dispatched to visit the murdered Palestinian boy’s grieving family, he was shouted off the premises.

As protests spread through Israel and Jerusalem, militants in Gaza from non-Hamas factions began firing rockets and mortars in solidarity. Sensing Israel’s vulnerability and the Ramallah leadership’s weakness, Hamas leaders called for the protests to grow into a third intifada. When the rocket fire increased, they found themselves drawn into a new confrontation: they couldn’t be seen suppressing the rocket attacks while calling for a mass uprising. Israel’s retaliation culminated in the 6 July bombings that killed seven Hamas militants, the largest number of fatalities inflicted on the group in several months. The next day Hamas began taking responsibility for the rockets. Israel then announced Operation Protective Edge.

Les #Etats-Unis et leur protégé semblent maintenant faire marche arrière, après des centaines de #morts #innocents.

... there are growing signs that Hamas stands a good chance of achieving some of [its goals]. Obama and Kerry have said they believe a ceasefire should be based on the November 2012 agreement. The US also changed its position on the payment of salaries, proposing in a draft framework for a ceasefire submitted to Israel on 25 July that funds be transferred to Gazan employees. Over the course of the war, Israel decided that it could solve its Gaza problem with help from the new government in Ramallah that it had formally boycotted. The Israeli defence minister said he hoped a ceasefire would place the new government’s security forces at Gaza’s border crossings. Netanyahu has begun to soften his tone towards Abbas. Near the end of the third week of fighting, Israel and the US quietly looked away as the Palestinian government made payments to all employees in Gaza for the first time. Israeli officials across the political spectrum have begun to admit privately that the previous policy towards Gaza was a mistake. All parties involved in mediating a ceasefire envision postwar arrangements that effectively strengthen the new Palestinian government and its role in Gaza – and by extension Gaza itself.

(...)

The obvious solution is to let the new Palestinian government return to Gaza and reconstruct it. Israel can claim it is weakening Hamas by strengthening its enemies. Hamas can claim it won the recognition of the new government and a significant lifting of the blockade. This solution would of course have been available to Israel, the US, Egypt and the PA in the weeks and months before the war began, before so many lives were shattered .

#honte #victimes_civiles, #crimes #Israel #Israël