Joe Stork [Program Director, Middle East & North Africa, Human Rights Watch]: "The conflict between Israel and Hamas-led forces in the Gaza Strip has taken a terrible toll among civilians.

Palestinian rocket attacks that in late February killed one Israeli civilian and wounded others violated the international humanitarian law prohibition against deliberate or indiscriminate attacks against civilians. It is unlawful to fire into populated areas weapons, such as Palestinian locally-made rockets, that cannot discriminate between civilians and military targets.

Israeli military operations over the following days killed 52 civilians, including 27children, according to the United Nations, which has field staff throughout the Gaza Strip. Some fifty-five Palestinian fighters were also reported killed. About 100 of the estimated 250 persons wounded were civilians.

Civilian casualties alone do not necessarily signify laws of war violations. In cases where fire is directed at areas that contain legitimate military objectives, it is necessary to investigate individual incidents to determine whether those carrying out the attack were targeting a military object and, if so, whether all feasible precautions were taken to minimize harm to civilians. Given the number of civilians killed in the Gaza operations, Israel should conduct serious and impartial investigations to determine how civilians died and whether all feasible measures were taken to avoid those deaths.

Israel has violated international humanitarian law with its blockade of the Gaza Strip, which prevents almost all movement of goods and persons into or out of the territory, including its cuts of fuel and electricity, and constitutes a policy of collective punishment. The laws of war prohibit a state that has effective control over an area — as Israel does in Gaza — from attacking or withholding objects that are essential to the survival of the civilian population. Such a policy also violates Israel's duty as an occupying power to safeguard the health and welfare of the population under occupation."