IDF to probe bombing of Gaza UN school

The Israeli military said Thursday night it had opened six new criminal investigations into soldiers’ actions during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip, including the bombing of a United Nations school that, according to Palestinians, killed 21 civilians and injured dozens.

Chief Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Danny Efroni announced the probe into the July 30 incident, in which the Israel Defense Forces fired several tank shells at a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp, which was housing hundreds of Palestinian refugees.

The Israeli strike elicited widespread international condemnation, including that of UN and US officials. It was one of three incidents between July 24-August 3 in which Israel was accused of striking UN schools serving as shelters, killing almost 50 people and wounding hundreds.

The military defended the action at the time, saying soldiers had targeted Gaza terrorists who had launched mortar shells from the location.

But Efroni said Thursday that findings had given him “reasonable grounds to suspect that the strike was carried out against regulations to which IDF troops are obligated.”

Efroni also ordered three probes into accusations that troops beat Palestinian detainees, as well as two probes into alleged looting cases.

Efroni had previously opened 13 criminal investigations into various incidents throughout the fighting, including another strike on an UNRWA school in which 14 people were killed, and an airstrike that killed four children on a Gaza beach.

A fact-finding commission set up by Efroni, and headed by Maj. Gen. Noam Tibon of the General Staff, has looked into approximately 120 incidents throughout the campaign. While some cases have been closed, most are still under various stages of review.

In February, Efroni said he was not concerned about a possible investigation by the International Criminal Court into Israel’s conduct during the Gaza war, explaining that Israel’s own internal probes were sufficient.

The Palestinians recently joined the Netherlands-based court and have threatened to press war crimes charges against Israel there. But, according to the court’s founding statute, any robust internal investigation could prevent an outside one by the court.

“I am not concerned because I think I am doing my job,” Efroni told journalists on the sidelines of a conference about the laws of armed conflict. He said the quality and professionalism of the investigations being carried out were “sufficient enough” to stave off a probe by the ICC.

The 50-day war is said to have killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, many of them civilians, according to Palestinian sources in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip; and 72 Israelis, mostly soldiers. Israel said about half of the dead were combatants and blames Hamas for all civilian casualties, since it emplaced its war machine in residential areas.

Israel launched the operation in Gaza last summer in what it said was a mission to halt relentless rocket fire by Hamas terrorists. Hamas seized control of Gaza in a violent coup against the Palestinian Authority in 2007. An Islamist terror group, it is committed to destroying Israel.

Israel has defended the summer operation as an act of self-defense and blamed Hamas for the heavy civilian death toll, saying the terror group used residential areas for cover. But critics have pointed to the heavy Palestinian civilian death toll and questioned whether Israel’s response was proportionate.

The international court could also investigate Hamas’s conduct during the war; it fired thousands of rockets at Israel and staged several fatal attacks in Israel via tunnels dug under the border.

Israel has also come under fire from critics who say it fails to thoroughly investigate its military operations or prosecute soldiers for abuses. Israel says it does investigate its actions, although those inquiries rarely lead to criminal punishment.

Following a similar operation in Gaza in early 2009, the army convicted four soldiers on various charges, including looting, improper use of a weapon and life-endangering conduct. The most serious sentence was a three-and-a-half-month prison term.

Efroni called the Israeli investigations “full and thorough.”