A NEW report has contradicted Israel on Gaza deaths with well over half of nearly 1,400 Palestinians being civilians, including 252 children younger than 16, challenging original claim that most of the dead were militants.
Determining the number of civilian casualties is seen as key in the ongoing debate over whether Israel, along with Hamas, violated the rules of war in its three-week offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers last winter.
International human rights groups have said they suspect both sides committed war crimes - Israel by using disproportionate force in crowded Gaza, and Hamas by hiding behind civilians and indiscriminately firing rockets at Israeli towns.
The Israeli rights group, B'Tselem, according to the Associated Press (AP) yesterday, published figures it said were compiled in months of research, including visits to families of victims. It said 1,387 Gazans were killed, including 773 civilians and 330 combatants. Thirteen Israelis also died, including four civilians.
The high number of Palestinian civilian deaths should compel the Israeli government to launch an independent investigation, the group said, adding that it considers the army's internal probe as flawed.
The military has acknowledged "rare mishaps" in its conduct during the war, but has denied it violated international humanitarian law. Israel refuses to cooperate with a U.N. war crimes investigation, alleging bias.
Meanwhile, a nasty diplomatic row with Sweden, Norway's decision to divest from an Israeli defence contractor and rising European condemnation of Israeli settlements is pointing to growing friction in the Jewish state's already tricky relationship with Europe.
European countries are taking a notably sharper tone at a time when a new U.S. administration is more willing to take Israel to task.
Last winter's Gaza war and the advent of a right-wing government in Israel have fueled increasingly vociferous criticism of Israel on a continent that is home to some of its most important allies and trading partners.
Israel's request for an upgrade in its trade relationship with the European Union has been put on hold. Calls for boycotts of Israel and divestment from Israeli companies have been gaining steam. And tens of thousands of Europeans have taken to the streets in recent months to protest Israeli actions, especially the high civilian toll in its bruising war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
Western Europe, with its sizable Muslim minorities and influential leftist movements, has long been less buoyant about Israel than the United States, with its large Jewish population and conservative political base. Yet the European Union is Israel's biggest trading partner, accounting for about one third of imports and exports.
That could give Europe significant leverage in pushing Israel to stop expanding settlements on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state - the main U.S. and Palestinian demand before resuming Middle East peace talks.
Israel is seeking upgraded trade ties that would give it tax breaks and better access to EU markets, closer cooperation in areas such as energy and battling terrorism, and more educational exchanges.
Europe has been actively using this leverage, said Richard Youngs, a political analyst in Madrid, Spain, even though the EU has not taken up British-led calls to deny preferential treatment to Israeli products made in settlements.
"I think it has passed up what could have been a good opportunity for influence over the settlements," Youngs said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to heed the demand for a complete settlement freeze - announcing plans to build hundreds of new housing units in the settlements. His government painted the new construction as a prelude to a freeze, but has had a hard time selling that viewpoint internationally - especially since Israel also plans to finish some 2,500 units under construction.
The European criticism is not across the board. Italy has the most pro-Israel prime minister in its history and Germany sees itself as a stalwart protector of the state created in the wake of the Nazi Holocaust.
But Israeli analyst Jonathan Spyer said "the hostility is reaching an extreme nature that we haven't seen before."
"It's not an ideal climate that Israel would want between itself and its major trade partners in the EU," he said.
Israeli Foreign Ministry official Itzhak Levanon, a former ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said that overall, nothing even approximating a crisis can be discerned in Israel-Europe relations.
"There are some voices coming from here or there but I would not dare to say there is a kind of political animosity against Israel," he said.
But there are signs of discontent.
Britain recently revoked several licenses granted to U.K. companies to sell weapons parts to Israel because of concerns over their use in the assault on Gaza. But the move was largely symbolic, as Britain supplies less than 1 percent of Israel's military imports.
Norway decided to sell its shares in Elbit Systems Ltd., an Israeli company that provides surveillance equipment for the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank, leading Israel to lodge a formal diplomatic complaint.
Jan Egeland, who helped organize the talks that led to the 1993 Oslo peace accords and directs the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, predicted further divestments and criticism.
"Israel changed from being the underdog that we could identify with to today being a local military superpower that occupies a vulnerable neighbouring people," Egeland said.
Determining the number of civilian casualties is seen as key in the ongoing debate over whether Israel, along with Hamas, violated the rules of war in its three-week offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers last winter.
International human rights groups have said they suspect both sides committed war crimes - Israel by using disproportionate force in crowded Gaza, and Hamas by hiding behind civilians and indiscriminately firing rockets at Israeli towns.
The Israeli rights group, B'Tselem, according to the Associated Press (AP) yesterday, published figures it said were compiled in months of research, including visits to families of victims. It said 1,387 Gazans were killed, including 773 civilians and 330 combatants. Thirteen Israelis also died, including four civilians.
The high number of Palestinian civilian deaths should compel the Israeli government to launch an independent investigation, the group said, adding that it considers the army's internal probe as flawed.
The military has acknowledged "rare mishaps" in its conduct during the war, but has denied it violated international humanitarian law. Israel refuses to cooperate with a U.N. war crimes investigation, alleging bias.
Meanwhile, a nasty diplomatic row with Sweden, Norway's decision to divest from an Israeli defence contractor and rising European condemnation of Israeli settlements is pointing to growing friction in the Jewish state's already tricky relationship with Europe.
European countries are taking a notably sharper tone at a time when a new U.S. administration is more willing to take Israel to task.
Last winter's Gaza war and the advent of a right-wing government in Israel have fueled increasingly vociferous criticism of Israel on a continent that is home to some of its most important allies and trading partners.
Israel's request for an upgrade in its trade relationship with the European Union has been put on hold. Calls for boycotts of Israel and divestment from Israeli companies have been gaining steam. And tens of thousands of Europeans have taken to the streets in recent months to protest Israeli actions, especially the high civilian toll in its bruising war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
Western Europe, with its sizable Muslim minorities and influential leftist movements, has long been less buoyant about Israel than the United States, with its large Jewish population and conservative political base. Yet the European Union is Israel's biggest trading partner, accounting for about one third of imports and exports.
That could give Europe significant leverage in pushing Israel to stop expanding settlements on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state - the main U.S. and Palestinian demand before resuming Middle East peace talks.
Israel is seeking upgraded trade ties that would give it tax breaks and better access to EU markets, closer cooperation in areas such as energy and battling terrorism, and more educational exchanges.
Europe has been actively using this leverage, said Richard Youngs, a political analyst in Madrid, Spain, even though the EU has not taken up British-led calls to deny preferential treatment to Israeli products made in settlements.
"I think it has passed up what could have been a good opportunity for influence over the settlements," Youngs said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to heed the demand for a complete settlement freeze - announcing plans to build hundreds of new housing units in the settlements. His government painted the new construction as a prelude to a freeze, but has had a hard time selling that viewpoint internationally - especially since Israel also plans to finish some 2,500 units under construction.
The European criticism is not across the board. Italy has the most pro-Israel prime minister in its history and Germany sees itself as a stalwart protector of the state created in the wake of the Nazi Holocaust.
But Israeli analyst Jonathan Spyer said "the hostility is reaching an extreme nature that we haven't seen before."
"It's not an ideal climate that Israel would want between itself and its major trade partners in the EU," he said.
Israeli Foreign Ministry official Itzhak Levanon, a former ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said that overall, nothing even approximating a crisis can be discerned in Israel-Europe relations.
"There are some voices coming from here or there but I would not dare to say there is a kind of political animosity against Israel," he said.
But there are signs of discontent.
Britain recently revoked several licenses granted to U.K. companies to sell weapons parts to Israel because of concerns over their use in the assault on Gaza. But the move was largely symbolic, as Britain supplies less than 1 percent of Israel's military imports.
Norway decided to sell its shares in Elbit Systems Ltd., an Israeli company that provides surveillance equipment for the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank, leading Israel to lodge a formal diplomatic complaint.
Jan Egeland, who helped organize the talks that led to the 1993 Oslo peace accords and directs the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, predicted further divestments and criticism.
"Israel changed from being the underdog that we could identify with to today being a local military superpower that occupies a vulnerable neighbouring people," Egeland said.
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