 "Israeli military patrols near the Al Shifa Hospital compound in Gaza City amid the ongoing ground operation against Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip on November 22, 2023. (Photo: Reuters)")
The Israeli military is scheduled to publish a major formal update on ongoing war crimes investigations related to the war in the Gaza Strip, according to a report.
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War in Gaza, the Israeli military has been accused of a host of war crimes, ranging from intentional targeting of civilians, the indiscriminate bombardment with disregard to civilian lives to the usage of starvation as a method of war.
The Jerusalem Post has reported that Military Advocate General Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi will issue an update on war crime investigations “in the coming weeks”. While the exact timeline or the reason for the update is not known, the newspaper reported that two reasons could be behind the decisions.
Firstly, the announcement of Israeli military chief Gen. Herzi Halevi that he will publish results of investigation into failures on October 7, 2023, before he leaves office on March 6 could have driven Tomer-Yerushalmi’s decision.
Secondly, the prosecution of Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) where it is accused of genocide could also be behind the decision.
In addition to the update in the coming weeks, military sources told The Post that a further even more comprehensive update will be issued by the end of July to respond to allegations made by South Africa in ICJ against Israel.
What’s expected in war crime probe’s update?
In the update on ongoing war crime investigations, Advocate General Maj. Gen. Tomer-Yerushalmi is expected to say that the number of total preliminary operational reviews by the Fact Finding Mechanism is up to more than 1,000 cases, according to The Post.
Among those cases, the newspaper reported that the military has opened around 85 criminal probes and around 220 disciplinary probes.
In the update in the coming weeks, final conclusions in the attack on World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers are also expected in which the Israeli military killed seven workers from six nations.
The newspaper further reported that the update could also issue a final ruling on probes into the attacks on two bakeries, one in October 2023 and another in November 2023, which were used to make the case at the ICJ and International Criminal Court (ICC) that Israel was starving out Palestinians by intentionally bombing food-production sites.
In its conclusions, the newspaper reported that “there is a high probability” that the military would say that there were terrorists in the bakeries when they were struck or that they were struck accidentally while terrorists nearby were being targeted.
Throughout the war that began with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has faced accusations of human rights violations and war crimes in Gaza. In some notable cases, Israeli military or elements in the military have themselves admitted and publicised their acts.
In January 2024, the Israeli military demolished the Al-Israa University in Gaza in controlled explosions. Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, who ordered the demolition, was formally censured by the military but was not sacked. In another case, participants at a funeral of an Israeli soldier killed in Gaza recalled how the soldier used to kill Palestinians and burn their houses to lift the spirits of fellow soldiers. Moreover, throughout the war, Israeli soldiers have shared videos of playing with toys in ruined homes and walking around with displaced Palestinian women’s clothes to mock them, attracting widespread condemnation outside Israel.