Israel Gaza War Defended In Government Report

JERUSALEM — An Israeli government report released Thursday insisted that "incessant" Hamas rocket attacks forced Israel to hit Gaza hard earlier this year, countering charges of war crimes but acknowledging that more than a dozen criminal inquiries are underway.

The 160-page report was called the first comprehensive Israeli government study of the punishing offensive in December and January that killed more than 1,100 Palestinians.

It was an attempt to answer charges from Palestinians, the U.N. and human rights groups that Israeli forces committed war crimes and violated international law during the three-week operation. Charges have included indiscriminate and intentional firing that killed civilians and destroyed property.

During the conflict, Israeli warplanes, tanks and artillery obliterated Palestinian government buildings and destroyed or damaged thousands of apartments, houses, businesses and factories. Israeli officials have acknowledged that their soldiers used additional firepower to keep their own casualties down.

Ten Israeli soldiers were killed during the conflict, along with three civilians who died in rocket attacks.

The scope of the destruction has triggered a flood of scathing reports from human rights groups.

Defending Israeli actions, the Israeli government report said it was not meant to be an "assertion of infallibility," but rejected the charges one by one, attributing excessive damage and casualties to understandable wartime mistakes.

The report said Israel is investigating about 100 complaints and has opened 13 criminal inquiries. A military statement Thursday said criminal cases under investigation now number 15.

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"Israel had both a right and an obligation to take military action against Hamas in Gaza to stop Hamas' almost incessant rocket and mortar attacks," the report's executive summary stated, noting that 12,000 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel between 2000 and 2008, including nearly 3,000 in 2008 alone.

"Under international law, Israel had every right to use military force to defend its civilians," the report said.

The report said 1 million Israelis were threatened by Hamas rockets, tens of thousands were traumatized and thousands fled their homes. It called the offensive, which began Dec. 26 and lasted three weeks, a "necessary and proportionate" response.

Hamas official Mushair al-Masri rejected the report, repeating the charge that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza. "This report is ridiculous and stupid and does not deserve a response," he said Thursday.

Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has denounced the Hamas rocket fire but charged that Israel's response was excessive.

The report analyzes at length the steps Israeli forces took to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza, while claiming that some such casualties were inevitable because Hamas fighters took up positions in crowded neighborhoods.

It said international law is violated only "when there is an intention to target civilians," and Israel had no such intention – in contrast to Hamas targeting Israeli civilians with its rockets.

The report explains damage to U.N. facilities by blaming Hamas for setting up rocket launchers nearby.

In one of the specific case studies, the Israeli report dismissed charges that dozens of Palestinian civilians were killed or wounded by white phosphorous shells, which are used to lay down smoke screens.

In a footnote, the report claimed, "There appear to have been no documented deaths in Gaza resulting from exposure to white phosphorus itself." The report acknowledged that shell casings with phosphorus residue could have hurt some people and started fires, but "it does not appear that damage from this use can be regarded as excessive."

Amnesty International is among the groups charging Israel with war crimes. In a report this month, the group deplored Israel's use of less-precise artillery shells and white phosphorous in built-up areas. It also accused Israeli forces of using Palestinians as "human shields" and frequently blocking civilians from receiving medical care and humanitarian aid.

Internal investigations into the use of white phosphorous have "uncovered no violations of international law," the report said, but noted that some inquiries are still in progress.

The report detailed steps aimed at limiting civilian casualties, counting 2.5 million leaflets and 165,000 phone calls to civilians warning them to leave targeted areas. Also, it said, humanitarian aid flowed into Gaza throughout the conflict.

Comments

[LincolnParkChicago]

For those of you who keep repeating that the reason for the Gaza incursion was rockets on Sderot, I remember it being widely discussed that the Gaza incursion had more to do with Barak and Levi’s sagging numbers in the election polls than any crude rockets. Those rockets had been falling on Sderot for 10 years. Why the sudden need to invade at that particular time? It was said that a tried and proven method of raising one’s poll numbers in Israel was to brutalize Lebanon or the Palestinians. This was discussed in Haaretz, HuffPo and even in the MSM. A Google search on “reason for gaza incursion was israeli election polls” returned these two and many others.
HuffPo
“Nevertheless, the war has given Ehud Barak and his Labor party a boost in the run-up to February's elections.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-levy/gaza-and-the-obama-effect_b_158359.html
Haaretz
IDF's Gaza incursions is Barak election ploy
“GAZA - The escalation in violence between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over the last week is an Israeli provocation aimed at increasing Defense Minister Ehud Barak's standings in the polls”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037260.html

[MemoryAlpha]

Further Observation:
"First, and most importantly, the ceasefire was remarkably effective: after it began in June 2008, the rate of rocket and mortar fire from Gaza dropped to almost zero, and stayed there for four straight months (see Figure 1, from a factsheet produced by the Israeli consulate in NYC). So much for the widespread view, exemplified in yesterday's New York Times editorial that: "There is little chance of restraining Hamas without dealing with its patrons in Syria and Iran." Instead, the data shows clearly that Hamas can indeed control the violence if it so chooses, and sometimes it does, for long periods of time."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-kanwisher/reigniting-violence-how-d_b_155611.html

[Justtellthetruth]

of the 1400 Palestinians killed, about 400 were children. even If you make the utterly impossible assertion that all of the others who were killed were militants, that,s still a nearly 2 to 1 militant to civilian casualty rate, which is so wanton and brutal that it boggles the mind

HOWEVER, common sense would dictate that its simply not possible that ONLY innocent children were the only civilian casualties, and in fact the number of civilians killed were probably more like 800 to 1000, or more than 2 to 1 civilian to militant kill rate. That is collective punishment .They simply went in paying absolutely no attention to whether or not children, mothers, elderly or other innocents were nearby. The Israeli troops in fact used Palestinian children as human shields as they entered neighborhoods (story in the new york times)

This is the depths of depravity that trying to maintain and expand a brutal settlements program and the occupation that guards it has brought the otherwise good Israeli people to. Obama MUST do everything in his power to force Israel to scrap the the morally and strategically failed and crushingly expensive (on our dime, as that is the only reason that Israel, an otherwise wealthy nation, needs US aid and miltary assistance) settlements and the occupation program.

[Justtellthetruth]

The truly criminal act here is that in the end Israel is still defending a settlements program. That is what a great deal of the conflict is about, and has been for decades. If the british were still in India, they too would be met with violence.

Settlements, colonialism, is always wrong, and will always be met with Violence. The far Israeli right are becoming increasingly desperate because they know their time has come and gonce.

It is up to Obama to see to it that US peace keepers are installed in Gaza, the west bank, and east Jerusalem, and that the settlers and IDF are removed for good. The peace keepers can keep both sides honest until a stable Palestinian state emerges. This precise ting has been BEGGED for by the palestinians and the rest of the world for decades, but the US has always vetoed it in the US. It's time to finally put an end to the brutal settlements program and toss it in the dustbin of history, along with slavery and Afrikaner Apartheid.

[lightningbolt]

Like every war that Israel has fought, with the exception of the Suez canal war, Israel was attacked and they defended themselves. Under international law, whoever starts a war is considered the war criminal for the whole war. In this case, Hamas started the war by launching rockets at civilians for many years. Therefore, Hamas is guilty of war crimes.

[DeniseA]

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Suez_War.html
Israel also was attacked prior to the Suez War of 1956.

[MemoryAlpha]

Observation:
It is veritable miracle that the fourth most militarized country in the world with the highest rate of combined international law and UN resolution violations just happens to be in a state of continuous war since it was founded and is yet somehow completely exonerated of any fault whatsoever by its supporters.

[phute]

Revisionsn, revisionism, evisionism, revisionis­m.........­.....

[Justtellthetruth]

there was no attack prior to the war in 67. That was preemptive.

[phute]

Yes and the whole world is now duly convinced that once again the IDF is the most moral military set up i the history of the world.
Bt one thing - why , if the IDF is so unbelievably humane did these clowns feel the need to produce 160 pages of nauseating self justification?
Come on al the Israeli talkback squad - start boring us with your government provided answers?
Surely they were the first thing you found in your mail box ths morning - eh?

[DeniseA]

Why shouldn't they evaluate their actions? That's how successful groups and individuals improve.
Israel is willing to examine actions and policies and change them if indicated.
Companies often have departments such as "Quality Improvement", "Quality Control", "Quality Assurance".
No, the US government doesn't send me pro-Israel literature. I get my information from studying histroy and reading the news.

[DeniseA]

It appears that the Gaza invasion worked:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/world/middleeast/24gaza.html?_r=2&src=twr
Making movies instead of firing rockets should improve Gaza's standard of living and save Palestinian lives. Maybe, if they can manage to release Galid Shalit, Egypt and Israel will open the borders.

[MemoryAlpha]

Query:
So are you happy that 300 Gazan children were massacred and thousands upon thousands more are homeless, starved, deprived of access to education, orphaned or some combination thereof? Was Israel's "safety" from rockets possessing a kill ration of less than 0.1% worth that?

[DeniseA]

Of course no one is happy about children accidently dying in wars. The fact remains that the rockets needed to stop.
Rockets are very dangerous, and a lot more Israelis could have been killed. What if a rocket had hit a hospital or school? Was Israel supposed to sit back and wait until that happened? There are consequences to doing stupid, deadly and dangerous things like firing rockets on peaceful civilians. When people do things like that, they often put their children and families at risk.

[phute]

Don't be silly - you just know it's only a matter of time before the act of movie making becomes comparable with acts of terrorism against the world's 4th largest military force.

[omobob]

The Israelis investigated themselves and found no wrong doing. The Fox in charge of the hen house could find no chickens. What do you expect?