The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has requested on Thursday to be investigated as war crimes at least five attacks on Iran’s ballistic missiles against Israel-populated areas during the June conflict between the two countries, considering that they constitute a violation of conflict laws.
“Although relatively few Iranian ballistic missiles have managed to penetrate Israeli defenses during the 12 -day conflict, those who often did so reached popular areas without obvious military targets,” HRW conflict director, Ida Sawyer said in a statement.
Sawyer stressed that attacking civil structures without a military objective is an “illegally indiscriminate” act and warned that those responsible must be held responsible for war crimes.
According to HRW, at least five Iranian missiles have reached civil homes located between 1.5 and 9 kilometers of Israeli military targets.
The NGO pointed out that one of Iran’s attacks hit the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, southern Israel, where patients and health professionals were injured.
The organization also reported that the Iranian authorities did not issue specific warnings before these attacks.
In total, at least 31 Israelis, 30 of them civilians, died in the confrontation, according to the counting of the Israeli authorities.
According to HRW, the conflict between Israel and Iran fits the category of international armed conflict under the laws of war, which prohibits “deliberate or indiscriminate” attacks against civilians and civil goods, as well as those that cause disproportionate damage to the civilian population.
During the war, which lasted 12 days, Israeli aviation, which began the offensive, performed intense bombing against military, nuclear and civil facilities in Iran, which left more than 1,000 dead, including dozens of high military commanders and nuclear scientists.
HRW had previously qualified Israel attacks on Iranian territory as war crimes.
His report detailed that he requested information from both the Iranian government and the Israeli on the attacks, but obtained no response from either.
After the conflict, the Iranian government triggered a mass arrest campaign in its territory, also reported by HRW, which documented more than 20,000 arrests from people accused of collaborating with Israel.
