B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation, has criticised the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for deliberately carrying out air raids on Palestinians' private homes, killing hundreds of civilians. The accusation refers to the bombardments carried out on the Gaza Strip from 8 July to 26 August 2014, during Operation Protective Edge.

Deliberate raids. Israeli forces, ostensibly searching for Hamas terrorists, killed approximately 2,200 Palestinians in 50 days, including 500 children and 250 women, according to United Nations data drawn from sources not limited to Palestinian ones. B'Tselem's investigation examined 70 raids that allegedly caused the deaths of 606 people while they were inside or near their homes. Among these were 93 children under the age of five.

© Khalil Hamra/AP

According to the humanitarian group, Israel acted in violation of international humanitarian law: "It cannot be said that the army did not know or could not have known how many civilians were dying during the attacks," said Yael Stein, who led the investigation. "Perhaps on the first or second day. But on the tenth or twentieth day, when you see how many civilians are dying… these attacks should not have taken place."

What is B'Tselem. It is a human rights information centre in the occupied territories, founded in February 1989 by a group of academics, lawyers, journalists and members of the Knesset, the unicameral Israeli parliament. Already in December, another non-governmental organisation, Amnesty International, wrote that the destruction of four multi-storey buildings inhabited by civilians in the final days of the conflict was "deliberate and without any military justification". Fortunately, in that case, no lives were lost.

Reconstruction blocked. During last summer's conflict, 67 soldiers and 6 civilians of Israeli nationality also died, and around 20,000 homes were destroyed. In September, the United Nations envoy for the Middle East, Robert Serry, had succeeded in brokering an agreement for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, allowing the entry of building materials such as cement. Now, however, that agreement is suspended because the coffers of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) have no funds to assist Palestinians in need. Of the 5.4 billion dollars pledged by the international community, not a single cent has yet been seen, according to the director of Unrwa in Gaza, Robert Turner.