Haaretz has reported today that an Israeli Defense Forces internal investigation has pointed out that it is difficult to justify the scale of the destruction of Palestinian homes and factories in Gaza during last month’s Operation Cast Lead (27 December to 18 January, with a ground invasion launched on 3 January).
Haaretz correspondent Amos Harel wrote that “A military source involved in the investigation” has indicated that the destruction of property is more problematic than the casualty figures — about which there is an on-going and ugly polemic, despite the fact that the IDF figures now list 1,100 to 1,200 Palestinians dead (but dispute how many of them were civilians — the police cadets killed at their graduation ceremony are classified as fighter/militants, etc.), while the hotly-contested Palestinian figures say there were 1,300 killed.
The Haaretz article said that “In most of the legal proceedings surrounding civilian casualties, the army intends to argue they represent ‘collateral damage’, namely unavoidable consequences of an enemy hiding among civilian populations, or of mistakes in directing fire … [while] the massive destruction of houses is harder to justify in legal terms. Investigations reveal that in many instances, commanders ordered the destruction of houses obstructing a ‘line of sight’ from an IDF position, or because commanders believed certain buildings could be used to endanger their own safety. In other instances, houses were destroyed after explosives or Kalashnikov rifles were discovered there, even when it could have been possible to conduct a controlled explosion causing limited damage. In dozens of instances, houses were destroyed on suspicions (which turned out to be unfounded) they concealed smuggling tunnels underneath. An official in the IDF legal apparatus said justifying such operations will be exceedingly difficult. On other occasions, there appear to have been discrepancies in the scope of destruction between different combat sectors, apparently as the result of differences in senior officers’ command methods”.
This Haaretz article can be read in full here.
Palestinian Authority officials visited the International Criminal Court in the Hague last week, to request an examination of whether or not war crimes were committed during the 22-day Israeli operation in Gaza. This also opens the way to a possible examination of the firing of rockets, mortars, and missiles from Gaza onto Israeli areas, which most international legal experts believe is also a war crime.