A/HRC/12/48
page 127
508. Leaflets dropped appear to fall into a number of categories. One leaflet did not deal with
attacks on a particular place but on the storage of weapons and ammunition:
To the residents of the Gaza Strip;
•
The IDF will act against any movements and elements conducting
terrorist activities against the residents of the State of Israel;
•
The IDF will hit and destroy any building or site containing ammunition
and weapons;
•
As of the publication of this announcement, anyone having ammunition
and/or weapons in his home is risking his life and must leave the place
for the safety of his own life and that of his family;
•
You have been warned.354
509. In some areas specific warnings were sometimes given. One example of a sufficiently
specific warning is that issued to the residents of Rafah:
Because your houses are used by Hamas for military equipment smuggling and
storing, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) will attack the areas between Sea Street and till
the Egyptian border…
All the Residents of the following neighbourhoods: Block O – al-Barazil
neighbourhood – al-Shu’ara’- Keshta- al-Salam neighbourhood should evacuate their
houses till beyond Sea Street. The evacuation enters into force from now till tomorrow at
8 a.m.
For your safety and for the safety of your children, apply this notice.355
4.
Factual findings
510. Whether a warning is deemed to be effective is a complex matter depending on the facts
and circumstances prevailing at the time, the availability of the means for providing the warning
and the evaluation of the costs to the purported military advantage.
511. Israel was in a strong position to prepare and issue effective warnings. The preparations
for its military operations were “extensive and thorough.”356 Israel had intimate knowledge and
354
Ibid.
“No safe place”, report of the Independent Fact Finding Committee on Gaza presented to the League of Arab
States (30 April 2009), p. 241. Note a similarly specific kind of warning issued to the residents of al-Shujaeiyah
(“The operation in Gaza…”, footnote 225).
355
Prime Minister Olmert, press conference on 27 December 2008, available at: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/
Government/Speeches+by+Israeli+leaders/2008/PM_Olmert_press_briefing_IDF_operation_Gaza_Strip_27-Dec2008.htm.
356
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