AMNESTY CHARGES; ISRAEL RESPONDS

Amnesty (the terrorists' best friend) issues yet another report on Gaza charging Israel with war crimes. The IDF responds:

We find it both questionable and objectionable that a well-respected and ostensibly objective international organization such as Amnesty could produce a report on Operation Cast Lead without properly recognizing the unbearable reality of nine years of incessant and indiscriminate rocket fire on the citizens of Israel. The slant of their report indicates that the organization succumbed to the manipulations of the Hamas terror organization.

Operation Cast Lead was a result of nine years of Hamas' unrelenting Kassam, Grad and mortar shell fire on more than a quarter of a million of Israel's citizens. Rocket fire was Hamas' preferred terror tactic, and they ruthlessly used populated areas of the Gaza Strip in order to carry out their attacks.

We did not find in the report a proper reference to the reality of the Israeli home front or to Israeli security concerns, and therefore the report seems unbalanced. It presents a distorted view of the laws of war that does not comply with the rules implemented by democratic states battling terror.

It also ignores the efforts of the IDF to minimize as much as possible harming uninvolved noncombatant civilians. During Operation Cast Lead, the IDF utilized various fighting methods and advanced technology to minimize harm to the civilian population, while engaging terrorists who were operating from densely populated areas and using the local population as a “human shield.”

In many cases, areas in which strikes of legitimate targets were to take place, as required by international law, the IDF warned the local population prior to the attack, via leaflets, radio broadcasts, and direct calls to private cellular telephones. It should be stated that the IDF only targeted military targets and avoided harming civilians, sometimes to the detriment of its own military interests.

In addition, during Operation Cast Lead, the IDF enabled for the transfer of humanitarian aid and also instated a daily several hour cease fire so that the goods could be safely distributed.

The Amnesty report ignores a critical aspect of Operation Cast Lead – Hamas consistently, deliberately and routinely violated International Law, specifically the prohibition against the use of"human shields." While Hamas was using Palestinian civilian centers to fire rockets at the citizens of Israel, the IDF went to great lengths to combat their terrorism while maintaining a firm commitment to the laws of war.

Documented evidence, from aerial drones, ground footage and independent accounts, prove, beyond all doubt, that Hamas deliberately exploited population centers – including medical, educational, recreational and religious facilities – to provide tactical cover for their terror activities.

It is to Amnesty International's discredit that the report they issued, focuses so intently on any and all IDF infractions, and ignores the blatant violations of international law perpetrated by Hamas.

Out of a professional, ethical and judicial obligation to thoroughly inspect certain claims made regarding Operation Cast Lead, the IDF conducted a number of investigations following the operation. The investigations proved that the IDF operated throughout the fighting in accordance with international law, maintaining high ethical and professional standards and in many incidents, for the sake of avoiding harm to unassociated civilians, even limited itself beyond existing judicial obligations. Nonetheless, the investigations found a few, unfortunate incidents that are unavoidable during combat - especially the type of combat Hamas forced upon the IDF during Operation Cast Lead, when it chose to fight from within civilian population centers.

In addition to the investigations ordered by the Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, the IDF is currently looking into complaints that were received from various sources - private lawyers, human rights organizations (including Amnesty) and media outlets (both domestic and international) - that raise different questions regarding the way in which the IDF operated during Operation Cast Lead. In certain cases, the Chief Military Advocate has already ordered the opening of a criminal investigation.