JERUSALEM, Oct 13 (AFP) - Israel inflicted collective punishment on Palestinians during a deadly May campaign in the Gaza Strip, which may have constituted war crimes, a French rights group said Wednesday.
Operation Rainbow, aimed at uncovering tunnels used by Palestinian militants to smuggle weapons from neighboring Egypt, exhibited "a policy of collective punishments on the Palestinian population," wrote the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights in a report.
International law considers that "such grave breaches may amount to war crimes," FIDH said.
The group said the operation's declared goal was "not convincing," and lamblasted "the arbitrary large-scale demolition of private houses without any convincing reason related to military necessity."
Hundreds of houses were bulldozed to stamp out cross-border tunnels and more than 40 Palestinians were killed in the course of the week-long campaign that ended on May 25.
Meanwhile, the health group Medecins du Monde (MDM), which conducted a joint investigation into Operation Rainbow with FIDH, published a report in which it denounced the army's "indiscriminate attacks on civilians."
It said that combined with the demolition and occupation of houses, the army's actions had "serious psychological consequences" on the population.
MDM deplored the lack of access to the wounded during the campaign and said rescue workers "were targeted (by troops) while ferrying patients or inside healthcare centers."
Some 3,800 people were made homeless and basic infrastructures were damaged, worsening their socio-economic conditions, MDM said.
Both groups said Israeli troops had violated the Fourth Geneva Convention, which stipulates rules for the protection of civilians in times of war.
MDM called on the United Nations to organize a follow-up investigation into the negative health implications of the raid.
The UN Security Council passed a resolution on May 20 criticizing Israel for killing Palestinian civilians and demolishing their houses in Rafah.