IDF Investigates Complaints from Gaza War (IDF Military Advocate General)

(dailyalert.org, Dec. 8, 2014)

The IDF Military Advocate General has investigated over 100 complaints regarding alleged exceptional incidents that occurred during the Gaza War. Information cleared for publication includes the following cases:

It was alleged that on 8 July 2014, six members of the family of senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander Hafet Hamed were killed as a result of an IDF strike on their home. According to the factual findings, the attack was carried out using precise and relatively low-explosive munitions, in an effort to minimize the risk of harm to civilians who may have been in the vicinity. At least three of those killed in the attack belonged to Palestinian terrorist organizations.

An aerial strike was carried out in the Rimael neighborhood of Gaza City on 9 July 2014 against a vehicle marked “TV,” which resulted in the death of one person. According to the factual findings, the vehicle was being used to transport weaponry. The vehicle was marked “TV” in order to mask its military use.

On 12 July 2014, two women were killed and four others injured as a result of an IDF aerial strike on a care center for the mentally and physically disabled belonging to the Alambra Association in Beit Lehia. According to the factual findings, the strike was directed at a weapons depot located inside the residential home of a senior Hamas commander. A number of precautionary measures were undertaken including several attempts to telephone the residents and the firing of two “knock on the roof” warning projectiles.

It was alleged that the Al-Wafa Hospital was unlawfully attacked by IDF forces on a number of occasions between 11-23 July 2014. According to the factual findings, Palestinian terrorist organizations used the hospital compound for a range of military purposes. Hospital structures were used on multiple occasions as firing positions towards IDF forces, and rockets were launched from the immediate vicinity of these structures. The hospital was attacked on 23 July after the IDF had ensured that all civilians had evacuated the hospital and that the hospital was being used at that time solely for military purposes.

On 28 July 2014, an incident occurred involving a strike on medical clinics belonging to Al-Shifa Hospital, as well as a strike on a park where children were present in the Shati Refugee Camp. Israel’s technical systems recorded in real-time the path of a salvo of missiles fired by Palestinian terrorist organizations from within Gaza which landed in the medical clinics and in the Shati Refugee Camp at the time of the incident.

See also IDF Launches Internal Probe into Possible Gaza War Infractions – Shlomi Diaz

Israel’s chief military advocate general, Maj. Gen. Danny Efroni, published on Saturday evening a series of conclusions reached in investigations into possible criminal and international law violations carried out during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza this past summer. The military prosecutor’s office looked into more than 150 complaints filed by Israeli and international rights organizations dealing with claims of attacking and killing civilians and firing at public buildings, hospitals, Red Crescent buildings and UNESCO buildings. (Israel Hayom)

(Click on the title of either article to see the whole article…Ed.)