Jerusalem (AFP) - An analysis of an Israeli assault in the Gaza Strip following the capture of one of its soldiers during last year's war in the Palestinian territory shows "strong evidence" of war crimes, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

The London-based rights group called for those responsible for the alleged offences to be prosecuted as it published a detailed analysis of the Israeli military operation using eyewitness accounts, satellite imagery, photos and videos.

"There is strong evidence that Israeli forces committed war crimes in their relentless and massive bombardment of residential areas of Rafah in order to foil the capture of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, displaying a shocking disregard for civilian lives," Philip Luther, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International, said in a statement.

"They carried out a series of disproportionate or otherwise indiscriminate attacks, which they have completely failed to investigate independently."

Israel strongly denied the accusations, calling Amnesty's report "fundamentally flawed in its methodologies, in its facts, in its legal analysis and in its conclusions".

"When one reads the report, the impression is given that the (Israeli military) was fighting against itself -- as there is almost no mention of the military actions of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organisations," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

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More than 2,251Palestinians were killed in the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas (AFP Photo/Mahmud …

The incidents addressed in the report centred on August 1, 2014, which has become known as "Black Friday," when Goldin was captured shortly after a ceasefire was announced. He was later declared dead.

In response, the military was said to have implemented the so-called Hannibal Directive -- a controversial procedure which allows for an intensive military response to secure the rescue of a captured soldier.

Israel bombed the city of Rafah and the surrounding area in the southern Gaza Strip near the border with Egypt. According to Amnesty, at least 135 civilians were killed in the air and ground assault.

Civilians had begun to return home due to the ceasefire announcement, Amnesty said.

"Massive and prolonged bombardment began without warning while masses of people were on the streets, and many of them, especially those in vehicles, became targets," Amnesty said.

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Amnesty International researcher Saleh Hijazi talks to journalists during a press briefing in Jerusa …

"Eyewitness accounts described horrifying scenes of chaos and panic as an inferno of fire from F-16 jets, drones, helicopters and artillery rained down on the streets, striking civilians on foot or in cars, as well as ambulances and other vehicles evacuating the wounded."

- Debate over 'Hannibal' -

A UN report in June said both Israel and Palestinian militants may have committed war crimes during the Gaza war, while decrying "unprecedented" devastation and human suffering.

The UN report condemned the "indiscriminate" firing of thousands of rockets and mortars at Israel by Palestinian militants as well as the "huge firepower" Israel used in Gaza.

The Palestinian enclave of 1.8 million people, under an Israeli blockade, has seen three wars in six years. Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip, is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union.

Amnesty partnered with researchers from Forensic Architecture, based at Goldsmiths, University of London, for its report.

Israel accused Amnesty of "a false narrative – claiming that four days of military operations by the IDF were in direct response to the killing and kidnapping of one IDF soldier," the foreign ministry said, referring to the Israel Defence Forces.

"It seems that Amnesty forgot that there was an ongoing conflict – during which the IDF was operating to stop rocket fire and neutralise cross-border assault tunnels, and Palestinian terrorist organisations were actively engaging in intensive conflict against the IDF from within the civilian environment."

Deborah Hyams from Amnesty told journalists however said the Hannibal Directive "is a policy and those who ordered it should be prosecuted".

Last summer's 50-day war took a heavy toll on Gaza, killing 2,251 Palestinians, including more than 500 children. Seventy-three people were killed on the Israeli side, including 67 soldiers.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — President Barack Obama's stepped-up partnership with Turkey in fighting the Islamic State may come at the cost of alienating another key group he's counting on for help in the same conflict: the Kurds.

To Obama's relief, Turkey has finally started bombing Islamic State targets in neighboring Syria, and agreed to let the U.S. military launch airstrikes from key air bases inside Turkey in a deal announced last week. But in an unexpected twist, Turkey simultaneously started shelling Kurdish rebels in Iraq, where Kurds have proven unusually capable of wresting back territory from the Islamic State militants with the help of air support from the U.S.-led coalition.

The White House has publicly sided with Turkey, endorsing the NATO ally's right to defend itself against recent deadly attacks in Turkey by the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. But Iraq's prime minister says the Turkish strikes violate Iraq's sovereignty, and U.S. officials have quietly signaled they're urging Turkey to lay off.

It's a dizzying array of alliances that illustrates Obama's paucity of good options for partners in his campaign against the Islamic State, an extremist Sunni militant group known in Arabic as Daesh. The U.S. considers the PKK, which has waged a long insurgency in Turkey, to be a terrorist group, but is supporting and equipping other Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria that share the PKK's goal of defeating the Islamic State.

"Knowingly or not, the U.S. is going to end up having to choose between the Turks and the Kurds," said Blaise Misztal, national security director at the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center.

While defending Turkey publicly, the U.S. has been urging Turkey to be "judicious" in its retaliation against the PKK, senior U.S. officials said. But Turkey's air campaign shows few signs of letting up.

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In this Sept. 5, 2014, file photo, President Barack Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan …

Turkish jets hit Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq overnight and the government said strikes would continue until the rebels lay down their arms. White House spokesman Eric Schultz called Wednesday for "a return to the peaceful solution process," but Turkey's prime minister shot down that prospect until the PKK withdraws its armed fighters from Turkey.

Despite the strikes against the PKK, the U.S. is pledging to work with Turkey to create a 68-mile "Islamic State-free zone" along its border with Syria.

But the White House has rejected claims that Obama agreed to look the other way to secure Turkey's help against IS. Although Turkey began shelling Islamic State and Kurdish targets on the same day, the administration insists there's no connection.

"I understand the coincidence of all of this, but it is just that," said State Department spokesman John Kirby.

Likewise, senior U.S. officials said Turkey agreed two weeks ago to let the U.S. launch airstrikes from Incirlik and elsewhere in Turkey. That was before the PKK killed two policemen in Turkey and took credit for it, which the officials said was the reason Turkey struck the Kurds.

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In this Sunday, Feb. 22, 2015, file photo, Syrian Kurdish militia members of YPG make a V-sign next …

But Turkey isn't drawing any such distinction.

"There is no difference between PKK and Daesh," said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. And Turkey specifically referenced its strikes against Kurdish rebels when it called an urgent NATO session this week under the alliance's Article 4, which applies when a member state feels its security or sovereignty are threatened.

Obama's strategy against the Islamic State depends on local forces in Iraq and Syria fighting the militants on the ground while the U.S-led coalition provides cover from the air. Despite U.S. training, Iraq's military has been slow to take the advantage. The Kurds, an ethnic group with their own language with populations in Syria and Iraq, have helped loosen the Islamic State's hold on key sections of both countries.

Until he shifted course last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had been primarily focused on opposing Syrian President Bashar Assad in the brutal Syrian civil war — putting him at odds with Obama, who has said fighting Islamic State is the priority. But recent attacks blamed on Islamic State inside Turkey drew alarm from Turkey's government, leading to its decision to step up its role in Obama's coalition.

"The price Turkey wants for cooperation is a free hand against the Kurds," said Jon Alterman, a former State Department official who runs the Mideast program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

And the U.S. still hasn't determined which Syrian rebels will do the fighting on the ground to oust Islamic State militants along the Turkish border, said the U.S. officials, who weren't authorized to comment by name and requested anonymity.

The main Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the YPG, is affiliated with the PKK, and claimed Monday that it had been shelled by Turkish troops. Turkey said it isn't targeting the YPG, but promised an investigation. The other potent force there that opposes Islamic State in Syria, the Nusra Front, is linked to al-Qaida. And the U.S. acknowledged recently it has only managed to train 60 so-called moderate Syrian rebels to fight IS.

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Reach Josh Lederman at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Turkey IS strikes create conundrum for Obama

The U.S. may have to choose between the Turks and the Kurds in the fight against the Islamic State.

Unexpected twist

Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine's security service on Wednesday announced the capture of a Russian army major who was allegedly delivering explosives to pro-Kremlin rebels in the former Soviet state's separatist east.

Moscow denies any involvement in Ukraine's 15-month conflict and describes Russians caught in the war zone as "volunteers" who joined the fighting without any direct orders from the army.

But both Kiev and its Western allies accuse Russia of sending in troops and heavy weapons to support the insurgency.

The National Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) identified the Russian allegedly captured in the separatist Donetsk region at the weekend as Vladimir Starkov -- an army major who got lost while driving a truck filled with explosives to a guerrilla outpost.

"Starkov immediately confessed to being a Russian citizen and to being an enlisted soldier of the Russian armed forces," SBU chief Vasyl Grytsak told reporters.

Ukraine in May showed off two captured Russians who identified themselves as acting servicemen sent on a reconnaissance mission by their military intelligence command.

Russia claims the two had quit the force by the time they joined the fighting in the former Soviet state.

The website of Ukraine's Novoye Vremya weekly on Wednesday published the transcript of what it said was a conversation between two pro-Russian insurgents who had just learned of Starkov's detention.

"How did he get lost," asked a fighter whom the purported radio intercept identified as Malysh (Baby).

"He had taken that route a hundred times already!"

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman on Wednesday reaffirmed Moscow's denial of involvement in the conflict and refused to be drawn on Ukraine's latest claim.

"We have repeatedly issued comments about such things," Interfax quoted the Kremlin spokesman as telling reporters in Moscow.

"I have nothing to add to what we have repeatedly said."

Hillary Clinton has staunchly defended Planned Parenthood in the wake of recently released videos that an anti-abortion group claims to show employees with the organization discussing the sale of aborted fetal tissue.

But, in a new interview, she calls the graphic videos “disturbing” and says there should be a national investigation into that practice.

“I have seen pictures from them and obviously find them disturbing,” the Democratic presidential candidate told the New Hampshire Union Leaderon Tuesday in regards to the videos, which were released by the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress. “Planned Parenthood is answering questions and will continue to answer questions.”

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Opponents and supporters of Planned Parenthood demonstrate Tuesday, July 28, 2015, in Philadelphia. …

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Clinton, however, did not waver in her overall support of the organization, and said there are two points to make: “One, Planned Parenthood for more than a century has done a lot of really good work for women: cancer screenings, family planning, all kinds of health services. And this raises not questions about Planned Parenthood so much as it raises questions about the whole process, that is, not just involving Planned Parenthood, but many institutions in our country.”

Clinton added that if there’s going to be a congressional inquiry into the videos, “it should look at everything,” and not just one organization.

Clinton made the remark on the same day the Center for Medical Progress released a third video which it says shows the harvesting of fetal tissue, as well as current and former Planned Parenthood employees discussing the procedures and pricing.

Several Republicans -- including many GOP presidential candidates -- have cited these videos as a reason why Planned Parenthood should lose federal funding. And Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul has called for Clinton to return the group’s donations to her campaign.

In response to the claims of illegal behavior in the video, Planned Parenthood has asserted that all of its actions are legal as well as ethical.

In addition, the organization said the video was “heavily edited,” stating that “similar false accusations have been put forth by opponents of abortion services for decades.”“Planned Parenthood has broken no laws," Cecile Richards, the president of the non-profit, said on ABC News’ "This Week." "We have the highest standards. The care and health care and safety of our patients is our most important priority."

Clinton, who is pro-choice, has vowed to defend Planned Parenthood over the weekend, even adding in a new line to her campaign stump speech.

“I will defend a woman’s right to choose,” Clinton said in Iowa and New Hampshire this week, “and I will defend Planned Parenthood."