16 june 2015
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By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank More pictures
A report issued Sunday by the Israeli occupation army on last year's genocidal blitz in the Gaza Strip claimed that Israeli forces didn't intentionally target Palestinian civilians. The report, issued belatedly and scandalously fraught with half-truths, selective data taken out of context and containing a preponderance of sheer lies, seems to be intended to counter growing international convictions that Israel did commit real war crimes and crimes against humanity during its 50-day devastating aggression on Gaza last summer. However, it seems that Israel’s task of exonerating itself of manifestly damning charges related to war crimes is not going to be easy. Indeed, the irrefutable facts available to the UN, the Red Cross and other |
neutral third parties should be sufficient to condemn and convict Israel as a murderous state.
There are also thousands of testimonies by on-the-ground eyewitness who have presented credible and honest narratives of the atrocities which killed and maimed thousands of civilians including hundreds of children.
It is really hard to believe that thousands of civilians were killed inadvertently or by mistake or as a result of collateral damage. Believing such claims would be an insult to human intelligence.
True, Israel is constantly shielded from international condemnation, especially punishment, by the United States, Israel's ultimate guardian-ally, as well as the governments of Western Europe.
But in this age of open skies and internet, it is imperative for all honest men and women around the world, irrespective of their religion or race, to expose the brutal ugliness of this criminal entity called Israel. This is the very least humanity should do on behalf of the helpless victims.
This is very crucial because Israel is convinced it is above the laws of man and God and unbounded by the international norms.
And should the world, God forbid, continue to fail to call the spade a spade, especially when the proverbial implement is seen in the hands of our grave-diggers, and I am not speaking metaphorically, it should be a foregone conclusion that Israel could or probably would eventually embark on the unthinkable vis-à-vis its helpless victims.
I don't know for sure how the unthinkable would be played out on the ground. However, 67 years of the Israeli experience should be more than sufficient to invoke and remember Stalin and his Gulags, Hitler and his concentration camps, Pol Pot and his genocidal crimes and Bashar El-Assad and his sectarian massacres.
Don’t tell me Israel is too civilized and wouldn't indulge in the unthinkable. The truth is that Israel would unhesitatingly embark on the unthinkable should the humanity go into a brief moment of slumber.
Israel calculates that apart from a brief outburst of half-hearted denunciations and some vociferous demonstrations in some western capitals, the world powers, particularly the US, would just "let it pass" and probably content with issuing indifferent calls on "all sides to exercise self-restraint."
I really don't know if the macabre Israeli calculations are accurate or not. However, from our bitter experience with the West especially since the Second World War, Israel seems ostensibly correct in its prognosis of western moral bankruptcy.
Indeed, a West that is looking on rather passively as Assad with active support from the Russians, the Iranians and Hizbullah is slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians, is decidedly unlikely to experience an awakening of moral conscience if and when the Israeli death machine gangs up on the Palestinians.
Genocidal Israelis
Israel is not Denmark or Sweden or even Britain. There is a definitely genocidal mindset in Israel which millions of Europeans and North Americans cannot easily detect due to many years of sustained brain-washing by Zionist-influenced or Zionist controlled media in the West.
Several years ago, an Israeli settler leader named Daniela Weiss from a colony in the northern West Bank delivered a hair-raising speech to dozens of fanatical Gush Emunim settlers in Hebron.
In her brief tirade, the gung ho settler leader told the fanatical multitude that the best way to deal with the Palestinians was the Joshua's way, an allusion to Biblical massacres carried out by Biblical Israelites against indigenous Canaanite tribes.
The speech, met with loud cheers, didn't raise many eyebrows in Israel, neither in the media nor in the government.
Hence, the claim that Israelis or Jews wouldn't allow the government of Israel to resort to genocide against the Palestinian is based more on wishful thinking than on any convincing arguments.
Today, the Palestinian people owe their survival as a people to the good-will of the international community.
But the continuity of this good-will cannot be taken for granted. This is why humanity must remain vigilant because the Israeli snake is venomous and treacherous.
Khalid Amayreh is a veteran Palestinian journalist and current affairs commentators living in occupied Palestine
There are also thousands of testimonies by on-the-ground eyewitness who have presented credible and honest narratives of the atrocities which killed and maimed thousands of civilians including hundreds of children.
It is really hard to believe that thousands of civilians were killed inadvertently or by mistake or as a result of collateral damage. Believing such claims would be an insult to human intelligence.
True, Israel is constantly shielded from international condemnation, especially punishment, by the United States, Israel's ultimate guardian-ally, as well as the governments of Western Europe.
But in this age of open skies and internet, it is imperative for all honest men and women around the world, irrespective of their religion or race, to expose the brutal ugliness of this criminal entity called Israel. This is the very least humanity should do on behalf of the helpless victims.
This is very crucial because Israel is convinced it is above the laws of man and God and unbounded by the international norms.
And should the world, God forbid, continue to fail to call the spade a spade, especially when the proverbial implement is seen in the hands of our grave-diggers, and I am not speaking metaphorically, it should be a foregone conclusion that Israel could or probably would eventually embark on the unthinkable vis-à-vis its helpless victims.
I don't know for sure how the unthinkable would be played out on the ground. However, 67 years of the Israeli experience should be more than sufficient to invoke and remember Stalin and his Gulags, Hitler and his concentration camps, Pol Pot and his genocidal crimes and Bashar El-Assad and his sectarian massacres.
Don’t tell me Israel is too civilized and wouldn't indulge in the unthinkable. The truth is that Israel would unhesitatingly embark on the unthinkable should the humanity go into a brief moment of slumber.
Israel calculates that apart from a brief outburst of half-hearted denunciations and some vociferous demonstrations in some western capitals, the world powers, particularly the US, would just "let it pass" and probably content with issuing indifferent calls on "all sides to exercise self-restraint."
I really don't know if the macabre Israeli calculations are accurate or not. However, from our bitter experience with the West especially since the Second World War, Israel seems ostensibly correct in its prognosis of western moral bankruptcy.
Indeed, a West that is looking on rather passively as Assad with active support from the Russians, the Iranians and Hizbullah is slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians, is decidedly unlikely to experience an awakening of moral conscience if and when the Israeli death machine gangs up on the Palestinians.
Genocidal Israelis
Israel is not Denmark or Sweden or even Britain. There is a definitely genocidal mindset in Israel which millions of Europeans and North Americans cannot easily detect due to many years of sustained brain-washing by Zionist-influenced or Zionist controlled media in the West.
Several years ago, an Israeli settler leader named Daniela Weiss from a colony in the northern West Bank delivered a hair-raising speech to dozens of fanatical Gush Emunim settlers in Hebron.
In her brief tirade, the gung ho settler leader told the fanatical multitude that the best way to deal with the Palestinians was the Joshua's way, an allusion to Biblical massacres carried out by Biblical Israelites against indigenous Canaanite tribes.
The speech, met with loud cheers, didn't raise many eyebrows in Israel, neither in the media nor in the government.
Hence, the claim that Israelis or Jews wouldn't allow the government of Israel to resort to genocide against the Palestinian is based more on wishful thinking than on any convincing arguments.
Today, the Palestinian people owe their survival as a people to the good-will of the international community.
But the continuity of this good-will cannot be taken for granted. This is why humanity must remain vigilant because the Israeli snake is venomous and treacherous.
Khalid Amayreh is a veteran Palestinian journalist and current affairs commentators living in occupied Palestine
15 june 2015
Hamas Movement urged the international community not to believe “Israel’s false reports” about its aggression on Gaza and to work on prosecuting its leaders for committing war crimes.
Commenting on the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s recent report about the summer offensive on Gaza, Hamas said that Israel continued to disregard international human rights laws and its premier Netanyahu's claim that his army abided "more than they should" by international laws was further aggravating such violations.
The Movement strongly denounced the Israeli report that “aimed to justify the Israeli army’s crimes along its 51-day aggression on Gaza Strip.”
The report was in total contradiction with the international investigation reports, Hamas continued.
“The report aims at justifying Israel’s war crimes and providing a legal cover for its deliberate murder of thousands of civilians.”
The report is worse than the crime itself, according to Hamas’s statement.
The issued probe proves that Israel is planning to continue its murder and destruction policy against the Palestinian people, the statement added.
Hamas denied the claimed statistics and details provided in the Israeli report.
In July 2014, Israel launched a brutal aggression on Gaza Strip that lasted for 51 days during which hundreds of air raids and land offensives were carried out, which resulted in the killing of 2323 Palestinians mostly children and women and the injury of thousands others, in addition to the destruction of thousands of houses.
Commenting on the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s recent report about the summer offensive on Gaza, Hamas said that Israel continued to disregard international human rights laws and its premier Netanyahu's claim that his army abided "more than they should" by international laws was further aggravating such violations.
The Movement strongly denounced the Israeli report that “aimed to justify the Israeli army’s crimes along its 51-day aggression on Gaza Strip.”
The report was in total contradiction with the international investigation reports, Hamas continued.
“The report aims at justifying Israel’s war crimes and providing a legal cover for its deliberate murder of thousands of civilians.”
The report is worse than the crime itself, according to Hamas’s statement.
The issued probe proves that Israel is planning to continue its murder and destruction policy against the Palestinian people, the statement added.
Hamas denied the claimed statistics and details provided in the Israeli report.
In July 2014, Israel launched a brutal aggression on Gaza Strip that lasted for 51 days during which hundreds of air raids and land offensives were carried out, which resulted in the killing of 2323 Palestinians mostly children and women and the injury of thousands others, in addition to the destruction of thousands of houses.
Ihab Bseiso
Spokesman for the PA in Ramallah, Ihab Bseiso, calls Israel’s report on its Gaza attack in 2014 “a denial of its actions during the war,” Middle East Confidential reports.
The report, released Sunday, was prepared by Israel’s Foreign and Justice Ministries in collaboration with the military and the National Security Council. It came out just a few weeks before the official U.N. report on the Gaza attack is expected to be released.
The 200 page Israeli report stated that the IOF targeted people and infrastructures with “reasonable certainty,” admitting that civilians were sometimes victims but added that it was an “unfortunate– yet lawful — incidental effect of legitimate military action in the vicinity of civilians and their surroundings,” Middle East Confidential quotes.
More than 2,200 Palestinians, mainly civilians, and 73 Israelis, most of them soldiers, lost their lives during the attack.
The report stated that “Israel did not intentionally target civilians or civilian objects” and accuses militant groups of hiding among civilians and using their residences to launch attacks on them during the war. In a bid to justify its actions, Israel stated that “much of what may have appeared to external parties to be indiscriminate harm to civilians or purely civilian objects was in fact legitimate attacks against military targets that merely appear civilian but were actually part of the military operations of these terrorist organizations.”
Spokesman Bseiso criticized the report saying “Israel’s decision to deny having targeted civilians in Gaza is the logical extension of what it did in the Gaza Strip.”
Bseiso said the one-sided report will not be accepted by Palestine. Instead, the authorities are awaiting the results of the upcoming U.N. Human Rights Council report on June 29.
Spokesman for the PA in Ramallah, Ihab Bseiso, calls Israel’s report on its Gaza attack in 2014 “a denial of its actions during the war,” Middle East Confidential reports.
The report, released Sunday, was prepared by Israel’s Foreign and Justice Ministries in collaboration with the military and the National Security Council. It came out just a few weeks before the official U.N. report on the Gaza attack is expected to be released.
The 200 page Israeli report stated that the IOF targeted people and infrastructures with “reasonable certainty,” admitting that civilians were sometimes victims but added that it was an “unfortunate– yet lawful — incidental effect of legitimate military action in the vicinity of civilians and their surroundings,” Middle East Confidential quotes.
More than 2,200 Palestinians, mainly civilians, and 73 Israelis, most of them soldiers, lost their lives during the attack.
The report stated that “Israel did not intentionally target civilians or civilian objects” and accuses militant groups of hiding among civilians and using their residences to launch attacks on them during the war. In a bid to justify its actions, Israel stated that “much of what may have appeared to external parties to be indiscriminate harm to civilians or purely civilian objects was in fact legitimate attacks against military targets that merely appear civilian but were actually part of the military operations of these terrorist organizations.”
Spokesman Bseiso criticized the report saying “Israel’s decision to deny having targeted civilians in Gaza is the logical extension of what it did in the Gaza Strip.”
Bseiso said the one-sided report will not be accepted by Palestine. Instead, the authorities are awaiting the results of the upcoming U.N. Human Rights Council report on June 29.
Israel has blocked a visit to the occupied Palestinian territories by a UN rights envoy, an official said Monday, just ahead of the publication of a United Nations report on last year's Gaza war.
It was the second time Makarim Wibisono, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, had been barred entry.
"We didn't allow this visit," which was to take place last week, foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon told AFP.
"Israel cooperates with all the international commissions and all rapporteurs, except when the mandate handed to them is anti-Israeli and Israel has no chance to make itself heard."
The UN Human Rights Council, to which Wibisono reports, has been conducting an investigation into the actions of both Israel and Palestinian militants during last year's conflict.
Its report is expected to be published in the coming days, and the council is scheduled to debate it on June 29. The UN's human rights chief, speaking at the opening of the council's 29th session in Geneva on Monday, confirmed the publication was imminent.
"It is my hope the report will pave the way for justice to be done to all civilians who fell victim to the fighting last year, by holding to account those alleged to have committed grave and other serious violations of international humanitarian law," High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said.
The war killed 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians including 500 children, and 73 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.
Related video & story: Gaza City's Devastated Al-Shuja'eyya Suburb
While Wibisono reports to the council, his visit was for a separate, annual assessment in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Israel barred him from entering last year for a similar visit.
In a report released Sunday, Israel defended its conduct in the July-August Gaza war against Hamas, calling it both "lawful" and "legitimate".
The UN has said Israel was responsible for the deadly bombing of several UN institutions, including schools, in which displaced Palestinian civilians were sheltering.
Israel says that militants' use of schools to store weapons, and the firing of rockets from the vicinity of the sites, forced it to target those areas.
Israel has long had a stormy relationship with the UNHRC and fiercely opposed the Gaza probe from the start.
It was the second time Makarim Wibisono, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, had been barred entry.
"We didn't allow this visit," which was to take place last week, foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon told AFP.
"Israel cooperates with all the international commissions and all rapporteurs, except when the mandate handed to them is anti-Israeli and Israel has no chance to make itself heard."
The UN Human Rights Council, to which Wibisono reports, has been conducting an investigation into the actions of both Israel and Palestinian militants during last year's conflict.
Its report is expected to be published in the coming days, and the council is scheduled to debate it on June 29. The UN's human rights chief, speaking at the opening of the council's 29th session in Geneva on Monday, confirmed the publication was imminent.
"It is my hope the report will pave the way for justice to be done to all civilians who fell victim to the fighting last year, by holding to account those alleged to have committed grave and other serious violations of international humanitarian law," High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said.
The war killed 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians including 500 children, and 73 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.
Related video & story: Gaza City's Devastated Al-Shuja'eyya Suburb
While Wibisono reports to the council, his visit was for a separate, annual assessment in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Israel barred him from entering last year for a similar visit.
In a report released Sunday, Israel defended its conduct in the July-August Gaza war against Hamas, calling it both "lawful" and "legitimate".
The UN has said Israel was responsible for the deadly bombing of several UN institutions, including schools, in which displaced Palestinian civilians were sheltering.
Israel says that militants' use of schools to store weapons, and the firing of rockets from the vicinity of the sites, forced it to target those areas.
Israel has long had a stormy relationship with the UNHRC and fiercely opposed the Gaza probe from the start.
Foreign Ministry spokesman says Israel will cooperate with all rapporteurs 'except when mandate is anti-Israel and Israel has no chance to be heard'.
Israel recently banned a United Nations rapporteur on human rights from traveling to the Palestinian territories, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem said Monday.
Makarim Wibisono, the Indonesian UN special rapporteur on human rights in the territories, was to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories last week, to prepare a report to be presented at the UN General Assembly in New York this fall.
"We did not permit the visit because Israel cooperates with all the international commissions and all (UN) rapporteurs, except when the mandate handed to them is anti-Israeli and Israel has no chance to make itself heard," Emmanuel Nahshon said.
Israel had previously prevented Wibisono from entering Israel in 2014, Nahshon said. Wibisono had subsequently written his report based on meetings with Palestinian officials in Jordan.
The special rapporteur is considered the UN's senior expert on the issue of human rights in the Palestinian territories. The holder of the position is appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, an institution that has long singled out Israel for censure.
The UN Human Rights Council, to which Wibisono reports, has been conducting an investigation into the actions of both Palestinian militants and Israel during last year's conflict in Gaza.
Its report is expected to be published in the coming days, and the council is scheduled to debate it on June 29. Israel has preempted the release of the report with the publication Sunday of the results of its own investigation into the fighting.
While Wibisono reports to the council, his visit was for a separate, annual assessment in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel recently banned a United Nations rapporteur on human rights from traveling to the Palestinian territories, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem said Monday.
Makarim Wibisono, the Indonesian UN special rapporteur on human rights in the territories, was to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories last week, to prepare a report to be presented at the UN General Assembly in New York this fall.
"We did not permit the visit because Israel cooperates with all the international commissions and all (UN) rapporteurs, except when the mandate handed to them is anti-Israeli and Israel has no chance to make itself heard," Emmanuel Nahshon said.
Israel had previously prevented Wibisono from entering Israel in 2014, Nahshon said. Wibisono had subsequently written his report based on meetings with Palestinian officials in Jordan.
The special rapporteur is considered the UN's senior expert on the issue of human rights in the Palestinian territories. The holder of the position is appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, an institution that has long singled out Israel for censure.
The UN Human Rights Council, to which Wibisono reports, has been conducting an investigation into the actions of both Palestinian militants and Israel during last year's conflict in Gaza.
Its report is expected to be published in the coming days, and the council is scheduled to debate it on June 29. Israel has preempted the release of the report with the publication Sunday of the results of its own investigation into the fighting.
While Wibisono reports to the council, his visit was for a separate, annual assessment in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
IDF judicial department played a key role in determining targets during last summer's conflict, including having power to veto a mission if civilian lives were at stake.
Accurate intelligence, close consultations with lawyers and strict criteria for attacks: a representative of the Military Advocate General explained in a briefing Sunday exactly how the IDF operated in last year's war with Hamas in Gaza, and the dilemma posed regarding each target, when one major objective was to prevent harm to civilians.
"If a lawyer says it is not a legal target, the commander cannot execute the attack and cannot challenge this."
Sunday's briefing was held to coincide with the release of an Israeli report by the Foreign Ministry. The briefing included the release of a "top secret" document that for the first time reveals the IDF's process identifying a target during the operation.
The target in question was the home of Ibrahim al-Shawaf, a senior member of the Islamic Jihad military wing in Khan Younis, which also served as a command and control center and as a weapons cache. The document describes the decision-making process before the attack on the building. This included IDF lawyers, who approved the attack, but not before they set a series of conditions.
The document includes the exact location of the house and even its coordinates. It also describes who was present at the target: the military commander, his family and other Islamic Jihad activists.
The description of the target: Part of a residential complex, 23 meters square in size. The target was a one-story building of 13 meters square.
Weapons at the target: Kalashnikov rifles, metal pipes, equipment for manufacturing rockets, including Grads.
Sensitive sites in the target area: no sensitive sites within a radius of 100 meters.
Method of achieving objective: Attack by fighter jets to destroy weapons cache while avoiding civilian casualties.
Conditions for carrying out the operation (as determined by the IDF legal experts): Observation and monitoring in real time, night-time attack, effective warning using the "knock on the roof" practice (firing an unarmed or low-impact projectile onto the roof of a building to warn the occupants that a real attack was coming).
Name of official giving authorization: Redacted.
Eventually the attack took place - and footage examined afterwards showed secondary explosions verifying the IDF's intelligence that the house was indeed a weapons cache.
'Grounded in international law'
Accurate intelligence, close consultations with lawyers and strict criteria for attacks: a representative of the Military Advocate General explained in a briefing Sunday exactly how the IDF operated in last year's war with Hamas in Gaza, and the dilemma posed regarding each target, when one major objective was to prevent harm to civilians.
"If a lawyer says it is not a legal target, the commander cannot execute the attack and cannot challenge this."
Sunday's briefing was held to coincide with the release of an Israeli report by the Foreign Ministry. The briefing included the release of a "top secret" document that for the first time reveals the IDF's process identifying a target during the operation.
The target in question was the home of Ibrahim al-Shawaf, a senior member of the Islamic Jihad military wing in Khan Younis, which also served as a command and control center and as a weapons cache. The document describes the decision-making process before the attack on the building. This included IDF lawyers, who approved the attack, but not before they set a series of conditions.
The document includes the exact location of the house and even its coordinates. It also describes who was present at the target: the military commander, his family and other Islamic Jihad activists.
The description of the target: Part of a residential complex, 23 meters square in size. The target was a one-story building of 13 meters square.
Weapons at the target: Kalashnikov rifles, metal pipes, equipment for manufacturing rockets, including Grads.
Sensitive sites in the target area: no sensitive sites within a radius of 100 meters.
Method of achieving objective: Attack by fighter jets to destroy weapons cache while avoiding civilian casualties.
Conditions for carrying out the operation (as determined by the IDF legal experts): Observation and monitoring in real time, night-time attack, effective warning using the "knock on the roof" practice (firing an unarmed or low-impact projectile onto the roof of a building to warn the occupants that a real attack was coming).
Name of official giving authorization: Redacted.
Eventually the attack took place - and footage examined afterwards showed secondary explosions verifying the IDF's intelligence that the house was indeed a weapons cache.
'Grounded in international law'
Lt. Col. Eran Shamir-Borer, a senior official in the International Law Department of the Military Advocate General, presented the document at a briefing to reporters. He revealed that this is the first time the IDF has brought out one of the documents that shows its procedure for deciding targets during the operation.
"This procedure is based on international law. It is the aim of all parties involved in the process to obey the rules. There were thousands of such objectives in Protective Edge. We planned the targets before and during the operation, and all of them went into the bank of targets.
"On the one hand the intelligence provided us with information and convinced us why this target - that looks like a civilian building - is in fact a legitimate one. In this case, the house was weapons cache and the site of operational planning, making it a military target. They provided us with information on what was happening around the target, which allowed us to respect the principle of distinction (between civilians and militants), and thus abide by the principle of proportionality."
Shamir said that military lawyers were involved in the early planning stages of the attacks.
"The job of lawyers is to determine whether this is a military target, to keep to the issue of proportionality and even be involved in presenting different attack scenarios. In the IDF, if a lawyer gives an opinion, this is the decider. If the lawyer says it is not a legal target and that there is no purpose, no commander cannot carry out the attack and cannot appeal against it.
"In some cases, the lawyer says to the commander: 'You can attack but there are several conditions: You must give effective warning to the residents of the house, to call them, let them know about the attack, give them enough time to flee. In the case of the attack in Khan Younis, the lawyers approved the attack with such conditions, and made a recommendation to maintain real-time visual tracking. This allows you to monitor civilian casualties."
Shamir also made general comments on the war between the IDF and Hamas.
"This is a conflict with a non-state actor that creates asymmetry between a state that respects the laws of war, and a terrorist organization. The battlefield is a civilian area. We obtained a large amount of documents indicating that this was Hamas' strategy. It taught its fighters how to act within an urban population, where it is easy for them to jump from roof to roof and move about via the tunnels. This illustrates the way in which they conducted the war. In Saja'iyya, we discovered a document – a guide for fighting in a built-up area – that said the IDF troops should pulled dragged as much as possible into the dense population."
Shamir said that there were thousands of sites in Gaza that enjoyed full protection, partly thanks to an arrangement with the United Nations.
"We had a map with thousands of sensitive installations, painted orange, so all forces knew they were sensitive sites. This map is updated constantly. We established a practice in which the UN twice a day provided us with the coordinates of the most sensitive places, and we passed them on to the troops in the field, so they knew each site. This is the first time that we have disclosed this. Ten minutes after we received the information from the United Nations – it was passed to the troops in the field."
From the Israeli report
Shamir also gave the example of how lawyers approved the IDF attack on a school from where mortar shells were being fired.
"We refrained from attacking schools, but there were some exceptions. We identified a compound in Saja'iyya that included several schools, one belonging to the United Nations, a clinic and a mosque. During the operation, dozens of mortar shells were fired from there into Israel, day after day. On August 25, after 11 mortar shells were fired- we decided to attack. We issued orders to the troops on how to carry out the attack on the school, how to give warnings and take preemptory steps to ensure that there were no civilians inside. Eventually the mortars were attacked, and we had no knowledge of the wounded civilians."
"Hamas took advantage of this situation," said Shamir. "It published a document calling for the neighborhood's residents not to leave and not to heed the warnings from the IDF. Those who did evacuate were told to go back. In some cases, Hamas urged people to stay home and denying them leave."
'Hamas conceals identities of the dead'
One of the main issues after the operation was the number of casualties in the Gaza Strip, and how many of them were innocent civilians.
Shamir: "Hamas ordered the removal of any military symbols from the bodies of dead terrorists so they would not be counted as gunmen, and to obfuscate the casualty figures. Their guidelines were to prevent the publication of names of military commanders who had been killed. They were very successful in hiding people's identities.
"We established a team of intelligence officers that has already been working for nine months to try to collect material from various sources, in order to determine the identities (of those killed). The information we have collected, as of April 2015, is that at least 44 percent of those killed were armed men. Thirty-six percent were definitely civilians, and we have no indication of their involvement in the conflict. The remainder were men aged between 16 and 50… some of them were armed and some were not."
"I know the claim of a large number of civilians (killed) was intended to prove that Israel acted disproportionately," said Shamir, "but as lawyers, we know this has no legal merit. If you are serious about the principle of proportionality, you cannot look at the overall numbers, but must consider each attack separately, to understand the commander's actions in each case - whether it was exaggerated or not depending on the threat. This is how to test the principle of proportionality."
Entire neighborhoods of rocket launchers Among the information in Israel's report is a table of all sensitive Gaza sites that were off limits for attack, such as hospitals, schools, places of worship and other UN installations. The report contains multiple aerial photographs of neighborhoods in Gaza from where massive rocket and mortar barrages were fired at Israel. Each launch site is marked with a red dot, and there are photos in which an entire neighborhood covered in red, as was the case with Saja'iyya. Other images show the damage to Israel's home front.
The report also includes numerous documents that IDF troops seized during the operation. One of the documents proves the systematic and deliberate exploitation of civilian homes and residential areas for military purposes, such as hiding the communication equipment near TV antennas. Another document, which is a guide for fighters entitled "Factors for successfully concealing weapons in buildings," details how to hide weapons in houses and how to use household items to smuggle weapons into residential areas.
"This procedure is based on international law. It is the aim of all parties involved in the process to obey the rules. There were thousands of such objectives in Protective Edge. We planned the targets before and during the operation, and all of them went into the bank of targets.
"On the one hand the intelligence provided us with information and convinced us why this target - that looks like a civilian building - is in fact a legitimate one. In this case, the house was weapons cache and the site of operational planning, making it a military target. They provided us with information on what was happening around the target, which allowed us to respect the principle of distinction (between civilians and militants), and thus abide by the principle of proportionality."
Shamir said that military lawyers were involved in the early planning stages of the attacks.
"The job of lawyers is to determine whether this is a military target, to keep to the issue of proportionality and even be involved in presenting different attack scenarios. In the IDF, if a lawyer gives an opinion, this is the decider. If the lawyer says it is not a legal target and that there is no purpose, no commander cannot carry out the attack and cannot appeal against it.
"In some cases, the lawyer says to the commander: 'You can attack but there are several conditions: You must give effective warning to the residents of the house, to call them, let them know about the attack, give them enough time to flee. In the case of the attack in Khan Younis, the lawyers approved the attack with such conditions, and made a recommendation to maintain real-time visual tracking. This allows you to monitor civilian casualties."
Shamir also made general comments on the war between the IDF and Hamas.
"This is a conflict with a non-state actor that creates asymmetry between a state that respects the laws of war, and a terrorist organization. The battlefield is a civilian area. We obtained a large amount of documents indicating that this was Hamas' strategy. It taught its fighters how to act within an urban population, where it is easy for them to jump from roof to roof and move about via the tunnels. This illustrates the way in which they conducted the war. In Saja'iyya, we discovered a document – a guide for fighting in a built-up area – that said the IDF troops should pulled dragged as much as possible into the dense population."
Shamir said that there were thousands of sites in Gaza that enjoyed full protection, partly thanks to an arrangement with the United Nations.
"We had a map with thousands of sensitive installations, painted orange, so all forces knew they were sensitive sites. This map is updated constantly. We established a practice in which the UN twice a day provided us with the coordinates of the most sensitive places, and we passed them on to the troops in the field, so they knew each site. This is the first time that we have disclosed this. Ten minutes after we received the information from the United Nations – it was passed to the troops in the field."
From the Israeli report
Shamir also gave the example of how lawyers approved the IDF attack on a school from where mortar shells were being fired.
"We refrained from attacking schools, but there were some exceptions. We identified a compound in Saja'iyya that included several schools, one belonging to the United Nations, a clinic and a mosque. During the operation, dozens of mortar shells were fired from there into Israel, day after day. On August 25, after 11 mortar shells were fired- we decided to attack. We issued orders to the troops on how to carry out the attack on the school, how to give warnings and take preemptory steps to ensure that there were no civilians inside. Eventually the mortars were attacked, and we had no knowledge of the wounded civilians."
"Hamas took advantage of this situation," said Shamir. "It published a document calling for the neighborhood's residents not to leave and not to heed the warnings from the IDF. Those who did evacuate were told to go back. In some cases, Hamas urged people to stay home and denying them leave."
'Hamas conceals identities of the dead'
One of the main issues after the operation was the number of casualties in the Gaza Strip, and how many of them were innocent civilians.
Shamir: "Hamas ordered the removal of any military symbols from the bodies of dead terrorists so they would not be counted as gunmen, and to obfuscate the casualty figures. Their guidelines were to prevent the publication of names of military commanders who had been killed. They were very successful in hiding people's identities.
"We established a team of intelligence officers that has already been working for nine months to try to collect material from various sources, in order to determine the identities (of those killed). The information we have collected, as of April 2015, is that at least 44 percent of those killed were armed men. Thirty-six percent were definitely civilians, and we have no indication of their involvement in the conflict. The remainder were men aged between 16 and 50… some of them were armed and some were not."
"I know the claim of a large number of civilians (killed) was intended to prove that Israel acted disproportionately," said Shamir, "but as lawyers, we know this has no legal merit. If you are serious about the principle of proportionality, you cannot look at the overall numbers, but must consider each attack separately, to understand the commander's actions in each case - whether it was exaggerated or not depending on the threat. This is how to test the principle of proportionality."
Entire neighborhoods of rocket launchers Among the information in Israel's report is a table of all sensitive Gaza sites that were off limits for attack, such as hospitals, schools, places of worship and other UN installations. The report contains multiple aerial photographs of neighborhoods in Gaza from where massive rocket and mortar barrages were fired at Israel. Each launch site is marked with a red dot, and there are photos in which an entire neighborhood covered in red, as was the case with Saja'iyya. Other images show the damage to Israel's home front.
The report also includes numerous documents that IDF troops seized during the operation. One of the documents proves the systematic and deliberate exploitation of civilian homes and residential areas for military purposes, such as hiding the communication equipment near TV antennas. Another document, which is a guide for fighters entitled "Factors for successfully concealing weapons in buildings," details how to hide weapons in houses and how to use household items to smuggle weapons into residential areas.
Section of the report showing how Oron Shaul's body was seized by Hamas.
On page 49 of the report there is a picture of the house and the tunnel through which the body of slain IDF Staff Sergeant Oron Shaul was transported. The report states that on July 20, Hamas militants removed Shaul's body through a tunnel in Saja'iyya. The tunnel exit was covered with a carpet in the living room of a civilian building.
Revealing this information now is vital, said new Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold. "Many of us talk about the morality of the IDF, and you have it in the report from the generals, but here is the proof, with footnotes and real information."
Gold said that the timing of the publication of the report was also key.
"We finished the work and did not wait. The report of the UN commission of inquiry (into Protective Edge) is due at the end of the month, but we have an indication that it will come out sooner... So we decided to present our official position."
On page 49 of the report there is a picture of the house and the tunnel through which the body of slain IDF Staff Sergeant Oron Shaul was transported. The report states that on July 20, Hamas militants removed Shaul's body through a tunnel in Saja'iyya. The tunnel exit was covered with a carpet in the living room of a civilian building.
Revealing this information now is vital, said new Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold. "Many of us talk about the morality of the IDF, and you have it in the report from the generals, but here is the proof, with footnotes and real information."
Gold said that the timing of the publication of the report was also key.
"We finished the work and did not wait. The report of the UN commission of inquiry (into Protective Edge) is due at the end of the month, but we have an indication that it will come out sooner... So we decided to present our official position."
