White Flag Deaths

Human Rights Watch

This report documents seven incidents where Israeli soldiers fired on civilians with small arms during Israel’s major military operations in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009.

These attacks killed 11 civilians—including five women and four children—and wounded at least another eight.

These casualties comprise a small fraction of the Palestinian civilians killed and wounded during what Israel called Operation Cast Lead, but they stand out because of the circumstances of the attacks. In each case, the victims were standing, walking, or in a slowly moving vehicle with other unarmed civilians who were trying to convey their noncombatant status by waving a white flag. All available evidence indicates that Israeli forces had control of the areas in question, no fighting was taking place there at the time, and Palestinian fighters were not hiding among the civilians who were shot. Whether waving a white flag or not, these people were civilians not taking an active part in hostilities, and

therefore should not have been attacked, according to international humanitarian law (the laws of war).

Human Rights Watch conducted extensive investigations into each of these incidents by visiting the attack sites, examining ballistic evidence, collecting medical records, and interviewing multiple witnesses—at least three people separately for each attack. In one case, forensic pathologists examined a survivor. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declined repeated Human Rights Watch requests for a meeting to discuss these cases and did not respond to questions about them submitted in writing (see Appendix).

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