Сivilian toll from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza is ‘unprecedented killing’, study says
An injured Palestinian girl in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
Photograph: Majdi Fath
Civilian toll from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza is ‘unprecedented killing’, study says.
The aerial bombing campaign by Israel in Gaza is the most indiscriminate in terms of civilian casualties in history, a study published by an Israeli newspaper Haaretz has found.
In the first three weeks of the current operation, Swords of Iron, the civilian proportion of total deaths rose to 61%, in what Haaretz described as “unprecedented killing”. The ratio is also significantly higher than the civilian toll in all the conflicts around the world during the 20th century, in which civilians accounted for about half the dead.
“The broad conclusion is that extensive killing of civilians not only contributes nothing to Israel’s security, but that it also contains the foundations for further undermining it,” Haaretz concluded. “The Gazans who will emerge from the ruins of their homes and the loss of their families will seek revenge that no security arrangements will be able to withstand.”