Just wait for it – the accusations of bias, anti-semitism, and whatnot… read below:
UN rebukes Israel over Gaza raids: BBC
A United Nations inquiry into attacks by Israeli forces on UN property during the Gaza conflict four months ago has heavily criticised Israel’s army. It found Israel to blame in six out of nine incidents when death or injury were caused to people sheltering at UN property and UN buildings were damaged. In one case, Palestinian militants were found to have fired at a UN warehouse. The Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, rejected the report, saying it was biased. “We have the most moral army in the world,” he said. “IDF [Israeli Defense Force] commanders and soldiers made every effort to avoid hurting uninvolved civilians. He accused Hamas of hiding its fighters among civilians and in the vicinity of UN installations.
The UN report recommends further investigation into possible war crimes. The investigation rejects Israel’s claim that militants were firing from the Fakhura school when at least 40 people outside the school were killed in shellfire. The board of inquiry also criticises Israel’s use of white phosphorus shells which caused the incineration of the UN’s main food warehouse in Gaza.
Reparations sought
The BBC’s Laura Trevelyan at the UN says it is a hard-hitting report which includes heavy criticism of the Israeli military’s actions and subsequent explanations and justifications. The UN board’s first recommendation seeks “formal acknowledgment” by Israel that its public statements that Palestinians fired from a UN school and from within the UN’s field office compound “were untrue and are regretted”. Another recommendation says the UN should take appropriate action to seek reparation for all deaths and injuries involving its personnel and property.
The report says Israel’s actions were in breach of the agreement that UN premises and those sheltering within them should be immune from attack, something which cannot be set aside for military action. The board says investigating the deaths of the 40 people killed outside the Fakhura school is outside its remit. It recommends that this and allegations of war crimes committed in Gaza and southern Israel by Palestinian militants and Israel should be investigated by another inquiry. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has stressed this report is not a legal document.
Gaza patients questionings ‘rise’: BBC
The number of Palestinians forced to provide information before being let out of Gaza for medical treatment is rising, an Israeli group has reported.
In the first three months of 2009 more than 400 patients were interrogated, Physicians for Human Rights says.
They say Israeli security services are involved in a systematic attempt to recruit Palestinians as collaborators. Israeli officials say they are carrying out security checks to ensure those entering Israel do not commit attacks. Spokesman Mark Regev told the AFP news agency that 13,000 Palestinians are treated in Israel each year. However, Physicians for Human Rights says Israel also interrogated children, detained patients for undisclosed periods of time, and intimidated them during interrogations. Those who did not co-operate were refused permission to leave Gaza for treatment, the group says.
Complicates process
Between January 2008 and March 2009 at least 438 patients were summoned for interrogations at Erez Crossing, the main crossing point for people between Israel and Gaza, the group says.
The data collected by the group has been presented to the Geneva-based UN Committee Against Torture.
“The data points to an increase in the ratio of the number of interrogations to the total number of applications submitted to the authorities at Erez Crossing,” the organisation says. The process of referring Palestinians in Gaza for medical treatment in Israel, or further afield, is a complicated one. It was administered by the Palestinian Authority even after Fatah, the faction led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, was ousted from Gaza in June 2007. Earlier this year the World Health Organisation warned that the feud between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority was putting at risk the lives of critically-ill Gazans. This followed the takeover by Hamas officials of the office that ran the referrals process in Gaza. Because Israel refuses to deal with Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group, this effectively closed down the referrals process.
Hamas officials have long maintained that the process is inefficient and corrupt.
This one is now few weeks old, but a most interesting one coming from the BBC:
Analysis: Operation Miscast Lead?: BBC
March 13, 2009
“Did we even fight a war in Gaza?” asked one Israeli newspaper editorial. This was a reference to the fact that rockets are still falling on Israeli soil two months after the Gaza offensive. At the time, Israeli officials said the aim of Operation Cast Lead was to restore the principle of deterrence in southern Israel. As it is understood in this part of the world, that means bludgeoning your enemies into submission, causing enough pain that they will hesitate to come back for more. In fact, this traditional Middle Eastern way of doing things was given a modern twist. Israel now had a new military doctrine: “go nuts” once and your enemies will fear to strike again. As Israeli commentator Ofer Shelah put it: “In the face of enemies who have opted for a strategy of attrition and attacking from a distance, Israel will present itself as a ‘crazy country’, the kind that will respond (albeit after a great deal of time) in a massive and unfettered assault, with no proportion to the amount of casualties it has endured.”
Certainly, there was massive bombing of Gaza; some 1,300 Palestinians lives were lost, many civilians. From Israel’s point of view, did it work? The answer must be, only partially.
Hanukah ‘miracle’
There is a lot less rocket fire on Israeli towns like Sderot and Ashkolon now than there was late last year.
As that antiseptic military phrase has it, the capabilities of Palestinian armed groups were “degraded”.
So when the Israeli F-16s flew overhead on their way back from the first wave of bombings in Gaza, on 27 December, residents of Sderot cheered and honked their car horns.
“This is a Hanukah miracle,” one told a passing TV crew. Israel has not found that the ‘rules of the game’ have changed (Israelis will not have missed the significance of calling the operation “Cast Lead”. A popular children’s song during the Jewish holiday of Hanukah is about playing with a spinning top made of cast lead. Palestinians will no doubt find the choice of words rather ghoulish.) But the “Hanukah miracle” did not last. It is, again, an unusual day when Israelis in the southern towns do not have to run for the bomb shelters at least once. Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot said that Operation Cast Lead had failed miserably in its aim of “creating new rules of the game in the south”.
“The arms smuggling was renewed and the rocket fire has continued,” said an editorial. “The residents of Gaza are now perceived by the world as victims of Israeli vindictiveness.” The paper concluded: “In brief, we’re screwed.”
So will Israel go back into Gaza? Probably not. Despite the editorial in Yediot, most newspaper coverage and most political discourse is dominated by the economic crisis sweeping Israel, as it is the rest of the world. Things have moved on. Although the residents of the south won’t like it, the rest of the country probably thinks it can live with the handful of rockets or mortars now being fired. After all, Israeli intelligence estimates the Palestinian militants were capable of firing up to 300 rockets a day before the Gaza offensive took place. A new scenario
For the time being, there are assassinations, or targeted killings as the Israelis call them, and air strikes on the tunnels used to smuggle weapons in from Egypt. But there seems to be no appetite in Israel to step up this activity into another offensive.
The next government will be led by Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud. He believes that the threat from Gaza is far less than that from a nuclear armed Iran. Any Israeli military strike against Iran is still far from certain. But the chances will be greater with Mr Netanyahu as prime minister.
That is especially true after the head of military intelligence, General Amos Yadlin, said this week that Iran could now make a nuclear device if it chose, having amassed enough uranium and perfected the technology. (Iran denies this.) If the leaks to the Israeli media are any guide, the country’s military planners are now busying for scenarios for attacking Iran – not Gaza.