A/HRC/29/52 because we don’t know what things can come from the ground. Since April, everyone was afraid and uncomfortable about the tunnels.” 33. The use of rockets in the possession of Palestinian armed groups, indiscriminate in nature, and any targeted mortar attack against civilians constitute violations of international humanitarian law, in particular of the fundamental principle of distinction, which may amount to a war crime. The intent of some Palestinian armed groups to direct attacks against civilians is demonstrated by statements indicating that their intended targets were civilians or large population centres in Israel. While certain Palestinian armed actors cited the limits of their military arsenals as a reason for failing to attack military targets precisely, the military capacity of a party to the conflict is irrelevant to its obligation to respect the prohibition against indiscriminate attacks. 34. The absence of any possible military advantage resulting from rockets that cannot be directed at a military objective, coupled with statements by Palestinian armed groups, strongly suggest that the primary purpose of the rocket attacks was to spread terror among the civilian population, in violation of international humanitarian law. 2. Air strikes on residential buildings in Gaza 35. During the 51-day operation, the Israel Defense Forces carried out more than 6,000 air strikes in Gaza,16 many of which hit residential buildings. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs found that at least 142 Palestinian families had three or more members killed in the same incident, amounting to a total of 742 fatalities. 17 Tawfik Abu Jama, a Gazan father of eight, recalled: “I was sitting with my family at the table, ready to break the fast. Suddenly we were sucked into the ground. Later that evening, I woke up in the hospital and was told my wife and children had died”. 36. The commission investigated 15 cases of strikes on residential buildings across Gaza, in which a total of 216 people were killed, including 115 children and 50 women. On the basis of all available information, including research by non-governmental organizations,18 it identified patterns of strikes by Israeli forces on residential buildings and analysed the applicable law in relation to individual incidents. 37. The commission found that the fact that precision-guided weapons were used in all cases indicates that they were directed against specific targets and resulted in the total or partial destruction of entire buildings. This finding is corroborated by satellite imagery analysis.19 Many of the incidents took place in the evening or at dawn, when families gathered for iftar and suhhur, the Ramadan meals, or at night, when people were asleep. The timing of the attacks increased the likelihood that many people, often entire families, would be at home. Attacking residential buildings rendered women particularly vulnerable to death and injury.20 16 17 18 19 20 Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IDF Conduct of Operations during the 2014 Gaza Conflict (available at http://mfa.gov.il/ProtectiveEdge/Documents/IDFConduct.pdf), p. 38. OCHA, Fragmented Lives: Humanitarian Overview 2014, March 2015, p. 4. See also B’Tselem, “Black Flag: The legal and moral implications of the policy of attacking residential buildings in the Gaza Strip”, January 2015, p. 46; and Amnesty International, “Families Under the Rubble – Israeli Attacks on Inhabited Homes”, 5 November 2014, p. 42. United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), Impact of the 2014 Conflict in the Gaza Strip – UNOSAT Satellite Derived Geospatial Analysis, 2014. The percentage of women killed was significantly higher in 2014 (20.2 per cent of civilians) than during the conflict in 2009 (14 per cent); see B’Tselem, “B’Tselem publishes complete fatality figures from operation cast lead”, press release, 9 September 2009. 9