Israel, Hamas embargo urged

Agence France-Presse

The London-based group said it had found evidence that Israel and Hamas had both used weapons supplied from overseas to carry out attacks on civilians, accusing both sides of committing war crimes during the three-week conflict at the start of the year.

It called for the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo until mechanisms were put in place to ensure that military equipment was not used to commit violations of international law.

"Israel used white phosphorus and other weapons supplied by the U.S. to carry out serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes," said Donatella Rovera, who headed an fact-finding mission to Israel and Gaza. "At the same time, Hamas and other Palestinian groups fired hundreds of rockets that had been smuggled in or made of components from abroad at civilian areas in Israel," Rovera added.