Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that the Israeli Occupation and Hamas carried out "attacks that violated the laws of war and appear to amount to war crimes," highlighting the need for international investigations.

In May, the two sides entered into a bloody conflict that lasted 11 days, during which the Israeli Occupation launched hundreds of air raids on the Gaza Strip, from which Hamas launched thousands of rockets towards the Jewish state.

The conflict resulted in the killing of 260 Palestinians, including 66 children and fighters.

In a statement, Human Rights Watch confirmed that it "investigated three Israeli raids that killed 62 Palestinian civilians, and there were no clear military targets in the vicinity."

The organization based its report on personal interviews it conducted with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, visits to the sites of four raids, and analysis of satellite images and videos.

The statement said that international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, allows "warring parties to target only military objectives, while taking all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians, including by providing real advance warnings of attacks."

According to Human Rights Watch, "individuals who commit serious violations of the laws of war with criminal intent—whether intentionally or recklessly—are responsible for war crimes."

On the Palestinian attacks, the organization said in its statement that Palestinian armed groups "committed illegal attacks, as they fired more than 4,360 unguided rockets and mortar shells at Israeli population centers."

According to the organization, this constitutes "a violation of the prohibition imposed on deliberate or indiscriminate attacks against civilians," noting that it will publish another detailed report on it.

On May 27, the United Nations Human Rights Council decided to form a commission of inquiry to address violations in the Palestinian territories and the Israeli Occupation. 

The ICC indicated that it was monitoring the recent conflict as part of its ongoing investigation into the practices of the Israeli Occupation and Palestinian armed factions.

The international organization called on the committee to "scrutinize the unlawful attacks committed by the Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups during the fighting (...), including the discriminatory treatment of the Israeli government against the Palestinians," referring to the eviction of Palestinian families in occupied East Jerusalem from their homes in the Sheikh neighborhood surgeon.

The organization called on the Commission to inform the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court of the results of her investigation.

AFP did not get an immediate response from the Israeli Occupation army, which Human Rights Watch said responded to its correspondence by emphasizing that it "only hits military targets."

The organization said that the army confirmed that it was "make unremitting efforts to reduce the harm caused to uninvolved individuals."

The army's response, which was also included in the organization's statement, said that "in many of the May raids, when this was possible... it sent advance warning to civilians within military objectives."

According to a Human Rights Watch statement, the Israeli Occupation army told it that it was "investigating a number of attacks that occurred during the May confrontations to determine if its "rules had been violated."