By Tom Rayner, Middle East Reporter in Jerusalem
Amnesty International has claimed Israeli forces "flouted the laws of war" on numerous occasions during this summer's conflict in Gaza, resulting in the deaths of civilians.
The group's latest report, Families Under The Rubble, examined a series of airstrikes on Palestinian homes during "Operation Protective Edge".
Some of the strikes resulted in entire families being killed.
It focuses on eight incidents in which a total of 111 people were killed, of whom at least 104 were civilians, with 66 children among them.
Amnesty claims the cases indicate that Israel failed to observe its obligations under international law to limit the risk to civilian lives.
"Israeli forces have brazenly flouted the laws of war by carrying out a series of attacks on civilian homes, displaying callous indifference to the carnage caused," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's Middle East Director.
Throughout the conflict, the Israeli military issued numerous statements insisting they were doing all they could to protect civilians.
They accused militants from Hamas and other organisations of being responsible, as a result of hiding in civilian areas and using residents as "human shields".
Although the Amnesty investigation did identify named individuals who may have been the targets in some of the cases, the report claims Israel has failed to explain why the targeting of those individuals justified the huge loss of civilian life.
The most deadly airstrike examined was that on the three-storey al-Dali building in Khan Younis on 29 July, in which 36 members of four families were killed, including 18 children.
Amnesty identified one of the building's residents, Ahmad Muammar, an engineer for Islamic Jihad, as the likely target of the strike.
Witnesses told Amnesty investigators how Muammar used a room inside the house for work using computers and electronics.
The second most deadly case documented occurred in Khan Younis on 20 July, when 24 civilians, including 19 children, were killed following an airstrike on the Abu Jame house.
Amnesty believes a member of the Hamas armed wing may have been standing nearby the house.
In both cases, the report claims Israel has failed to explain what the targets were or why they justified the clear risk to civilians.
"The onus is on Israeli officials to explain why they chose to deliberately flatten entire homes of civilians (...) even if a fighter had been present in one of these residential homes, it would not absolve Israel of its obligation to take every feasible precaution to protect the lives of civilians caught up in the fighting," Mr Luther added.
Sky News asked the Israeli military for a response to the Amnesty International report, but none has been offered at this time.
Nearly 2,200 Palestinians died during the 50-day war in Gaza between July and August. UN figures suggest at least 1,523 of those killed were civilians.
During the conflict Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza fired thousands of rockets into Israel, resulting in the death of six civilians, including one child. Some 66 Israeli soldiers were killed over the course of Operation Protective Edge.
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