– HRW
The Israeli government should conduct an immediate and independent investigation into the deaths of four civilians, including a Reuters cameraman and two teenage boys, in Gaza on April 16, 2008, HRW said today. HRW’s investigations at the site found evidence suggesting that an Israeli tank crew fired recklessly or deliberately at the journalist’s team, Joe Stork, Middle East director at HRW, said.
Israeli soldiers did not make sure they were aiming at a military target before firing, and there is evidence suggesting they actually targeted the journalists. Israel should investigate these deaths and, if crimes were committed, hold to account those responsible. The area where the journalist was killed was open and a bit elevated. The Reuters truck was clearly marked ‘TV’ and ‘Press’ and drove by the tank twice, so it’s hard to believe the Israeli tank crew didn’t see the pickup contained only journalists. The use of flechette shells, with a wide ‘kill radius,’ increases the chance of indiscriminately hitting civilians. Israel should stop its use of the weapon in Gaza, which is one of the most densely populated areas on earth.
Fadel Shana’a, a 23-year-old cameraman employed by Reuters, was killed as he was filming the tank close to Gaza’s border with Israel, southeast of Gaza City. Three other persons were killed as they watched Shana’a filming. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights identified them as Ahmed ‘Aaref Farajallah, 14, Ghassan Khaled Abu ‘Otaiwi, 17, and Khalil Isma’il Dughmosh, 22. Interviews conducted by HRW with an eyewitness to the shelling, a resident in a nearby village and a journalist who arrived just after the attack, as well as camera footage taken by Shana’a, indicate there was no military activity by Palestinian militants at the scene of the attack. Shana’a was wearing a flak jacket with “PRESS” printed in large blue and white letters on the front. Footage from Shana’a’s camera shows an Israeli tank a few hundred meters away firing a shell. About one second later, Shana’a’s camera goes black. Photographs taken shortly after the incident by a local journalist show teenagers Farajallah and Otaiwi lying dead near the destroyed pickup truck.
Minutes after the tank shelling, three other journalists tried to reach the area in an armored jeep. When they stopped their vehicle, marked “Press” in large letters, and walked towards the Reuters vehicle, they also came under tank fire. Evidence gathered from the road, and x-rays of the dead and wounded, show the tank fired a flechette shell, which unleashes hundreds of dart-like projectiles before the shell hits the ground. Doctors in Gaza showed the media x-rays of Shana’a’s body, which showed several flechettes lodged in his chest and legs. Several were embedded in his flak jacket. Human rights groups in Israel and Palestine have long urged the Israeli military to stop using flechette shells in Gaza because they spread over a wide area and are thus more likely to indiscriminately hit civilians.
Niqnaq 