Third of Palestinians killed by Israel in 2007 were civilians

AFP

JERUSALEM (AFP) — More than one third of the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in 2007 were civilians who were not involved in hostilities, an Israeli human rights group said in a report released on Monday.

"In 2007, about 35 percent of those killed were civilians who were not taking part in the hostilities when killed," said the report by the B'Tselem organisation.

Out of the 373 Palestinians killed, 131, or some 35 percent, were civilians who were not involved in fighting, the report said -- a decrease of 19 percentage points from the 2006 figure of 54 percent.


On the Israeli side, seven civilians were killed this year by militants...

There is video taken by Palestinians of actions by settlers and IDF. It has apparently gotten a lot of attention in Israel.

Shooting Back: The Israeli Human Rights Group B’Tselem Gives Palestinians Video Cameras to Document Life Under Occupation.
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/12/26/shooting_back_the_israeli_human_rights

Here's a more complete view of the same situation.

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http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=08E7AACE-39F6-40A6-B77B-0A487B60366A

Targeted Killing Is Working
By Alan M. Dershowitz
FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, January 04, 2008

Sometimes what the international press does not cover reveals as much about its biases as what it does cover. When Israel was engaged in a campaign of targeted killings against Gaza terrorists during the height of the Palestinian Intifada, the press eagerly reported on every civilian casualty. Human rights organizations had a field day criticizing Israel for its failure to pinpoint legitimate military targets and the large number of collateral deaths its campaign of targeted killings was producing. In those days, especially in 2002-2003, approximately half of the people killed by Israeli missiles were civilians. The other half were terrorists who were engaged in trying to kill as many civilians as possible. Sometimes the civilian casualties exceeded the legitimate military killings. The most notorious such case was the targeted killing of Salah Shehadeh, a terrorist commander who was responsible for hundreds of Israeli deaths and who was actively involved in planning hundreds, perhaps thousands, more. After several failed attempts, a targeted rocket attack managed to kill him and few tears were shed over his well deserved demise. But in the process of killing him, his wife and daughter were also killed along with 13 other civilians. This caused an enormous outcry, not only in the international press, but among Israelis as well. Even though Shehadeh’s death may well have prevented the deaths of many more Israeli civilians, still the cost in Palestinian civilian casualties was too high for most Israelis to accept and for the international media to tolerate.

Since the Shehadeh tragedy, the Israeli air force has undertaken a major effort to reduce civilian casualties, while continuing to target enemy combatants who are planning terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens. By using smaller bombs, they kill fewer civilians, but they also miss many legitimate military targets, as they did when they used a small bomb and failed to kill several Hamas terrorist leaders who were assembled in one place.

Under the leadership of Eliezer Shkedi, the current head of the Israeli air force, Israel has dramatically reduced the number of civilian deaths, by developing greater technical proficiency and by forgoing attacks when the risk of civilian deaths is too high. This is the way this improvement was recently reported in Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper known for its criticism of targeted killings:

Lately, the thwartings have indeed become more worthy of the title "pinpointed." In all the attacks of recent weeks, only gunmen were hurt, as confirmed by Palestinians. The rate of civilians hurt in these attacks in 2007 was 2-3 percent. The IDF has come a long way since the dark days of 2002-2003, when half the casualties in air assaults on the Gaza Strip were innocent bystanders. The attacks fall into three main categories: targeting specific known terrorists; targeting Qassam rocket-launching cells en-route or in action; and punitive bombardments of Hamas outposts, in response to rocket or mortar fire into Israel.

<snip>

The Bt'salem report (at least in this article) does not break down types of Israeli actions. Dershowitz specifically addresses targeted killings.

At least the Bt' salem article admits that the number of dead Palestinians overall this year is half what it was last year. That would seem to be the most important news from that report - and should have been the headline of any balanced article on this. The civilian percentages overall (not just from targeted killings) have gone from 50% to 35% - which should also be good news and should deserve some praise from human rights orgs that were actually interested in Palestinain civilian lives more than smearing Israel.

Dershowitz' article attempts to show why fewer Palestinian civilians are dieing - both percentage-wise and on an absolute basis - even as Israel greatly improves the protection of Israeli civilians from terrorist attacks over previous years.

Elsewhere, they still have a kill rate of 35% civilians. I'm not sure what's so great about that. The OP did state that there was a deterioration of other human rights issues in the OT.

"So, Israel is getting much better at their assassinations - Yeah!! Elsewhere, they still have a kill rate of 35% civilians. I'm not sure what's so great about that."

From the AFP article: "The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in 2007 nearly halved compared to the previous year -- 373 died up to December 29 this year, while 657 were killed in 2006, it said."

Are you saying that you liked it better last year when Israel killed twice as many Palestinain civilians in their attempts to stop terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians? Seems pretty cynical. "Damn those Israelis. They killed only half as many Palestinians this year as last - just to make our overblown accusations of genocide seem even more ignorant than they already are."

Are you saying that when Israel was killing one civilian for each terrorist - that was better in your opinion than this year when Israel killed only one civilian for every two terrorists?

I can only imagine why you think that's bad.

decrease, if you combine both articles, is due to Israel improving their skills at assassinations.

Who are you quoting, by the way? You may well "imagine" what I think. But nowhere did I say it's bad that the numbers of deaths have decreased, nor any other sinister opinions you'd like to credit to me. Unfortunately, I don't have to imagine anything similar about your opinions because you are foolish enough to spread them all over this forum.

"I'm not sure what's so great about that."

"Damn those Israelis. They killed only half as many Palestinians this year as last - just to make our overblown accusations of genocide seem even more ignorant than they already are."

Because I certainly didn't say that. Nor did I mention genocide. So are you putting words in my mouth?

others call it legitimate killings of illegal combatants.

always defending killing citizens (well, just the Palestinian ones)

Thanks for providing another example of that.

In 2006, 73% of Israeli casualties were civilians, that dropped to 63% in 2007. There was also a drop in Palestinians killing Palestinian civilians from 29% (16)(2006) to 26% (90)(2007). Also the number of unknown status (active in combat or civilian unknown) dropped from 49% (27)(2006) to 9% (32) (2007). However, there were six times as many Palestinians killed by Palestinians this last year (345), as compared to 2006 (55).

1982 Hama, syria...

the syrian army killed 30,000 to 40,000 of its own citizens: first arial bombing on the city, then artillery, then out right executions and finally poison gas....

It that is too old we could look at the Lebanese army and the Palestinian refugee camps?

Do you deny that was fomented by the West? You guys will do anything to crush Hamas.

You can write all the crap you want here, but we both know what went down.

Cut me a break.

and use them as human shields.

They use civilian homes as weapons caches. They use children to carry out their violence, including picking up rocket launchers.

Of course there will be civilians killed with the militants' methodology. It actually foments anger on the street, and that's exactly what they want.

35% of the killings being civilians not involved in fighting. 54% in 2006 - over half of all killings were civilians. No excuse. Amnesty called the killings of civilians in Lebanon "indiscriminate". The numbers don't lie. The excuses should be put away and the issues addressed seriously.

You mean that the actual terrorists are the same as civilians?