During the 11 - day war against Hamas in Gaza last May, Human Rights Watch accused the Israeli occupation army of launching attacks that "appear to amount to war crimes."

The International Organization of Rights issued its findings after investigating three Israeli airstrikes that it said killed 62 Palestinian civilians.

The organization confirmed: "There were no clear military targets in the vicinity of those attacks."

Human Rights Watch said such attacks "violate the prohibition against deliberate or indiscriminate attacks against civilians."

The report focused on Israeli actions during the fighting, and the organization said it would issue a separate report on the actions of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups next August.

For his part, Jerry Simpson, director of crisis and armed conflict at Human Rights Watch, said: "Israeli forces carried out attacks in the Gaza Strip in May that destroyed entire families, with no apparent military target nearby," according to the Associated Press.

He added: "Israel's continuing unwillingness to seriously investigate alleged war crimes, together with the firing of Palestinian rockets into Israeli civilian areas, underlines the importance of the ongoing investigation of the activities of both sides by the International Criminal Court."

There was no response to the report from the Israeli army, which repeatedly said that its attacks targeted military positions in Gaza.

The army accuses Hamas of causing civilian casualties through rocket attacks and other military operations from within residential areas.