An international human rights group on Tuesday accused Israel of violating the laws of war and killing civilians in recent Gaza offensive.

In a new report issued Tuesday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Israel used the most precise weapon in its arsenal-guided missiles fired from unmanned drones- and killed tens of people who were not taking part in hostilities.

In the 39-page report titled "Precisely Wrong: Gaza Civilians Killed by Israeli Drone-Launched Missiles," the organization documented the death of 29 civilians, eight of them were children, in six drone airstrikes in Gaza during the three-week fighting which started on December 27, 2008.

More than 14.000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli military operation against Gaza but Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups have reported a total of 42 drone attacks that killed 87 civilians in all during the war.

"Human Rights Watch found that Israeli forces failed to take all feasible precautions to verify that these targets were combatants, as required by the laws of war, or that they failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians," the group said in a press release obtained by Xinhua.

"Drone operators can clearly see their targets on the ground and also divert their missiles after launch," said Marc Garlasco, HRW senior military analyst and co-author of the report. "Given these capabilities, Israel needs to explain why these civilian deaths took place."

The organization also demanded Israel to release all video recordings taken by the drone planes before and during their strikes into Gaza.

The report calls on Israel and Hamas, the Islamic movement which controls Gaza, to cooperate with a UN fact-finding mission, led by South African prosecutor Richard Goldstone, which investigates the recent violations.

Source: Xinhua