Methodology
During major military operations, from December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009, Israel banned access to Gaza for all media and human rights monitors. Access via Rafah in Egypt was also blocked. During this time, Human Rights Watch monitored the conflict from Israel, observed the fighting from the 1948 Israel-Gaza armistice line, and obtained information from its Gaza-based research consultant.
Human Rights Watch researchers entered Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on January 21, three days after major military operations had ceased, and spent the next two weeks investigating alleged violations of international humanitarian law by the IDF and Palestinian armed groups. A researcher returned to Gaza via Egypt from April 8 to 19. Israel continues to ban access to Gaza for Human Rights Watch and other international human rights organizations.
Six of the seven cases documented in this report were brought to the attention of Human Rights Watch by journalists or human rights organizations, such as B’Tselem, the Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. Human Rights Watch discovered the seventh case during the course of other research.
For the seven cases, Human Rights Watch interviewed five victims and 29 witnesses to the attacks, as well as others who could provide information about what was happening in the area at the time. Whenever possible, Human Rights Watch conducted interviews privately and individually—at least three separately for each attack. Information was cross-checked with accounts of the fighting made available by the IDF or reported in the media. Names of victims were checked against a published list of deaths from Hamas’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, to help determine whether any of those killed were combatants.
Researchers examined each of the seven attack sites. In one case, the killings of the two ‘Abd Rabbo family members, Human Rights Watch consulted forensic pathologists from Denmark and South Africa who examined one of the survivors.
On February 10, 2009, Human Rights Watch submitted to the IDF a series of questions about the cases documented in this report, including GPS coordinates of the shooting sites. The letter is included as an appendix to the report. As of August 1, the IDF had not replied.
