[JURIST] In a report [news report, PDF] issued on Thursday, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] called upon Palestinian and Israeli officials to properly address human rights violations committed by their forces. The report was released a day before the second anniversary of Operation Protective Edge, a 50-day military offensive by Israel in Gaza, and features interviews from relatives of those killed, discusses flaws in ongoing investigations by both sides, and documents several attacks directed at civilians in violation of international laws. The report discusses Palestinian officials’ failure to seriously investigate violations by Hamas and Palestinian armed groups, “abducting, torturing and unlawfully killing Palestinians” suspected of “collaborating” with Israel and launching “thousands of unguided rockets and mortars towards Israel, often directing them towards civilian areas” respectively. The report also addresses similar failures by Israeli officials to conduct sufficient military investigations, having only brought charges against three soldiers for minor abuses despite far more severe war crimes having been committed, and ignored. AI, in its report, urged all parties involved to conduct substantial and transparent investigations into the war crimes, such as would comply with international standards, and asked for their support in the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] preliminary examination into the matter.

The increase in violence in the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict [HRW backgrounder] has created a contentious human rights situation. The UN Committee Against Torture (CAT), a body of independent experts, released [JURIST report] closing remarks to its fifty-seventh session in May, expressing concern about the use of excessive force by Israeli forces against Palestinians. An Israeli court in April convicted [JURIST report] Yosef Haim for the 2014 murder of a Palestinian teenager that led to a 50-day war in Gaza. UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories Makarim Wibisono [official profile] resigned [JURIST report] from his position in January, saying that Israel has not granted him access to the Occupied Palestinian Territory after repeated requests.