REUTERS
Israel was issuing a report on Sunday (June 14) arguing its 2014 Gaza offensive was lawful, a move aimed at pre-empting the release of findings of a U.N. war crimes investigation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed as a waste of time.
Launched after a surge of cross-border rocket fire by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, Israel’s two-month offensive last year, which included heavy shelling and air strikes into the densely populated enclave, killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians.
Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel also died in the conflict.
“Whoever wants to know the truth, let them read this report. Let them also read the report by the senior generals,” Netanyahu, accusing Hamas of hiding behind non-combatants by deliberately operating in crowded Palestinian neighbourhoods, told his cabinet in remarks made public just before the release of the report.
“Whoever wants to continue with baseless automatic blaming of the State of Israel, let them waste time reading the report by the U.N. commission. We for our part will continue protecting our soldiers. They will continue protecting us,” he added.
The inquiry by the U.N. Human Rights Council into possible war crimes by Israel and the Islamist Hamas militants controlling the Gaza Strip is due to publish its findings this month, having postponed the release from March to consider further evidence.
Israel says it did everything possible to prevent civilian casualties. Israel’s critics accuse it of using excessive force and acting with impunity.
In March, Makarim Wibisono, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian territories, said the disparity in casualty figures on the two sides “reflects the (skewed) balance of power and the disproportionate cost borne by Palestinian civilians, raising questions as to whether Israel adhered to the international law principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions.”
Israel declined to cooperate formally with the U.N. council, accusing it of pro-Palestinian bias. The council’s former chief investigator, William Schabas, resigned in February over consultancy work he previously did for the Palestine Liberation Organization.
In Gaza, Hamas dismissed the Israeli report.
“The Israeli report, by which the occupation tries to clear itself of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip, is an attempt to control the international public opinion and to pre-empt the report of the International Council of Human Rights regarding the committing of war crimes in the Gaza Strip. This Israeli report has no value because the Israeli war crimes are obvious and committed in front a live and direct broadcast,” said Hamas spokesman Sami abu Zuhri.
The Netanyahu government’s report was being released by the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem at 2 p.m. local time (1100 GMT).
On Friday, the Friends of Israel Initiative, a private European advocacy group, published assessments by several retired military chiefs from various countries defending Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war.
In March, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, another pro-Israel advocacy group based in the United States, published a similar report.
REUTERS
