Israel committed "war crime" in Gaza - rights group

JERUSALEM, Sep 27 (Reuters) Israel's bombing of a power plant in the Gaza Strip this year was disproportionate and constituted a war crime under international law, an Israeli human rights group said today.

Israeli war planes bombed and largely destroyed the power plant outside Gaza City on June 28, three days after Palestinian militants abducted an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid from Gaza. The soldier is still being held.

The bombing cut off electricity to many of Gaza's 1.4 million residents, affecting hospitals and food supplies, and had a knock-on impact on the water and sewage systems.

Israel said it bombed the plant to cut power supplies and make it more difficult for militants to operate and move the captured soldier and denied that the attack was a war crime.

''It's acceptable under international law to target infrastructure when that infrastructure is exploited and used by the enemy to conduct his aggressive war against you,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

Mr Regev said other countries had also attacked power stations, including in recent wars in Serbia and Afghanistan.

In a report entitled ''Act of Vengeance'' the rights group B'Tselem said: ''The bombing of the power plant was illegal and defined as a war crime in international humanitarian law as the attack was aimed at a purely civilian object.'' ''Even if one adopts the doubtful claim that the attack provided some definite military advantage, it was disproportionate and Israel had other, less harmful alternatives.'' B'Tselem, an independent group that monitors Israel's occupation of the West Bank and its policies in Gaza, called on the Israeli government to open a criminal investigation into the bombing and prosecute those responsible for the attack.

It also called on the government to pay to rebuild the 0 million plant, which could take a year. Regev said Israeli-Palestinian cooperation had been hurt by the soldier's abduction and rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel.

The United Nations in July described the bombing of the 140-megawatt power plant as a disproportionate use of force and said it had contributed to worsening humanitarian problems in the Gaza Strip.

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