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On Thursday, Israeli Arab rights group Adalah called for an international probe into alleged war crime committed by Israel during the 50-day war with Hamas, a week after the Israeli army dismissed several such investigations.
On September 10th, the Israeli army launched five criminal probes into incidents involving its soldiers during the conflict, in which over 2,140 Palestinians had died.
However, the Israeli military’s legal branch had dismissed seven cases before the army’s investigations – two of the cases were demanded to be probed by Adalah, a human rights organization which focuses on rights of the Arabs in Israel. The cases included the bombing of a house in Southern Gaza, due to which eight members of a family had died, and the alleged killing of media personnel in Gaza City by an air strike.
“The cases’ dismissal shows that (Israel’s Military Advocate General) does not view these events with the seriousness that they deserve”, it said in a statement.
Adalah also said that the decisions made by the Israeli army to investigate only one of many bombings of schools run by the UN “clearly demonstrate a conflict of interest”.
“They are being carried out by an investigative body that is not independent (and) one that belongs to the military”, the rights group quoted lawyer Sawsan Zaher saying.
“As long as Israel does not conduct independent investigations that strongly demonstrate the violations of international humanitarian law, then the only way to investigate… is through an independent international investigation”, the statement read.
The Israeli army is, among other cases, investigating the bombing of a UN school on July 24th in the town of Beit Hanoun in which 15 people were killed and the bombing of a beach in Gaza City on July 16th, where four children were killed.
