Results of the massive Israeli bombing of Gaza City in July 2002 in which 15 Palestinians were killed.
Six Palestinian survivors and
relatives of the victims of a massive Israeli bombing of Gaza
City in July 2002 have submitted a
lawsuit in Spain
against top Israeli military officials to determine their liability in this
incident. The lawsuit, initiated and prepared by the Palestinian
Center for Human Rights, represents the first time that Palestinian
survivors of Israeli
military attacks have directly petitioned the Audiencia Nacional, the Spanish National Court
that deals with special crimes.
The lawsuit requests
that the Audiencia Nacional investigate whether the 22 July 2002 incident, in
which the Israeli air force dropped a one tonne bomb on the Al Daraj
neighbourhood of Gaza
City in order to demolish
the home of suspected Hamas commander Salah Shehadeh, can be considered a crime
against people and goods protected during armed conflict. During this incident,
15 Palestinians were killed, mostly infants and children, while150 others were
injured.
If the court finds this
to be the case, the Israeli military officials could be prosecuted in Spain due to
the peninsula’s universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity.
The military officials
named in the petition: former Israeli Minister of Defence Benjamin Ben Eliezer;
Military Secretary Michael Herzog;; former Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon; former
Commander of the Israeli Air Force Dan Halutz; General Doron Almog; former
President of the National Security Council Gioria Eiland; and former General
Director of the General Security Services (GSS) Abraham Dichter.
The United Nations, the
European Union, the United States
and Britain criticized Israel at the
time for this “heavy handed” action that “does not contribute to peace,” as the
US White House spokesperson noted in its statement. An estimated 100,000
Palestinians attended the funerals of the 15 victims.
However,
an internal Israeli military investigation concluded that “the procedures
followed in the IDF operation were correct and professional, as were the
operational assessments.” And a 2003 petition in this matter, submitted to the
Israeli High Court by several of the affected Palestinian families together
with the organization Yesh Gvul, was rejected in January 2006 with the
contention that the operation was “proportionate to the military aim of
assassinating Shehadeh” and that the ensuing result was not “intentional
Lawyers Antonio Segura, Gonzalo Boye, Raul Maillo, and Juan Moreno, will
try the case. They are known best for their involvement in the case against
Augusto Pinochet for Crimes
against Humanity in
Great Britain, where the group represented the victims of torture from
Guatemala. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) has been working with
the four lawyers for more than two years to prepare this lawsuit,  which may be viewed here (in Spanish).
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