Israeli Militants Reject Gaza Abuse Accusations

On Monday, Israeli militants rejected accusations that its soldiers and military committed war crimes and atrocities against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel is claiming that most of the 1300 Palestinians killed in Gaza were “terror operatives” during “Operation Cast Lead.” "Operation Cast Lead" is also known as the Gaza operation, and was the Israel’s operation aimed to stop Palestinians from firing rockets from Gaza in to Israel.

Yet this conclusion contradicts what Israeli soldiers said earlier this month. According to an Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, numerous soldiers came forward and admitted that a lot of Palestinian civilian killings and Palestinian property was intentional.

The allegations made by Israeli soldiers in Haaretz were from soldiers that graduated from a pre-military course at an Israeli college. In them, Israeli soldiers said that they were left under the impression by Israeli troops that "inside Gaza you are allowed to do anything you want."

Israel’s top general dismisses the claims though.

"I don't believe that soldiers serving in the IDF hurt civilians in cold blood, but we shall wait for the results of the investigation," Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said last week. Ashkenazi instead blamed Hamas for choosing to fight in heavily populated areas.

"It was a complex atmosphere that includes civilians and we took every measure possible to reduce harm of the innocent," he said, according to an IDF statement.



The conclusions made on Monday by Israeli militants follow a military police investigation that examined claims that were being made from the media and a conference. The claims said that the Israeli army intentionally damaged property and killed innocent civilians during Israel's raid into Gaza in late December and January.

Israeli military supporter General Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit told the press that the stories told by the media about the war “were purposely exaggerated and made extreme, in order to make a point with the participants of the conference."

He also said that a majority of the allegations were based off of rumor and "not supported by the facts as determined by the investigation."
Yet many human rights organizations are condemning the speed that the Israeli military police reached their conclusion.

Human rights organization groups such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Bimkom, B'tselem, Gisha, Hamoked, The Public Committee Against Torture, Yesh Din, Physicians for Human Rights, and Adalah have all commented on the situation.

Video About the Gaza War Crimes

"The speedy closing of the investigation immediately raises suspicions that the very opening of this investigation was merely the army's attempt to wipe its hands of all blame for illegal activity during Operation Cast Lead," nine human rights groups said in a joint statement.

These human rights groups are also calling for a civilian investigation, which Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has rejected.

"The closing of the Army's own investigation only strengthens the need for the attorney general to allow for an independent non-partisan investigative body to be established in order to look into all Israeli Army activity during Operation Cast Lead," said the organizations.

The human rights groups raise the possibility that acts by the Israeli military towards the people of Gaza are a lot worse than what has been speculated.