The Israeli air force's attacks on four high rise buildings in the Gaza strip amounted to war crimes, a new report by Amnesty International says.
The report, which focused exclusively on these attacks in which no one died, says the destruction by Israel was extensive and “appeared to be wanton”, for no military reasons.
"All the evidence we have shows this large-scale destruction was carried out deliberately and with no military justification," said Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director, Philip Luther.
"Both the facts on the ground and statements made by Israeli military spokespeople at the time indicate that the attacks were a collective punishment against the people of Gaza and were designed to destroy their already precarious livelihoods."
Luther further said that even if the Israeli authorities believed part of a building was being used for military purposes, they had an "obligation to choose means and methods of attack that would minimise harm to civilians and their property".
Israel denied the allegations made in the report, saying it ignored the use of the buildings by Hamas militants, and criticised Amnesty choosing to "focus on monetary losses to Palestinian civilians, rather than investigate the systematic and deliberate firing of rockets and mortars at Israel's civilian population".
The human rights organisation called for an independent and impartial investigation into the attacks and said it would focus on violations of international humanitarian law by Hamas in a forthcoming report.