Human rights watchdog Amnesty International condemned...

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International condemned Palestinian suicide attacks against Israeli civilians as crimes against humanity and demanded they end immediately.
"(We) urge the Palestinian Authority to arrest and bring to justice those who order, plan or carry out attacks on civilians," Amnesty said in a hard-hitting report presented at a news conference in Gaza City.
The criticism of the Palestinians was unusual from a group that has often faulted Israel over its use of force to try to quell a 21-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in the West bank and Gaza Strip. The report said 350 Israeli civilians had been killed in attacks staged by Palestinian nationalist and Islamic groups over the past 21 months.
Sixty of the Israeli dead were children, the youngest five months old. This compares with estimates by Palestinian human rights groups that one third of the Palestinians killed in the conflict were under the age of 18.
Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas which has spearheaded a suicide bombing campaign against Israel since interim peace accords were signed in 1993, told Reuters that it rejected Amnesty's appeal.
"We reiterated our right to self-defense. This is not a war between two armies and should not be viewed as such," he said. "The communique ... deliberately ignores the legitimate motives of our struggle."
At least 1,439 Palestinians and 549 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian revolt began in September 2000.