The High Court of Justice will begin deliberations Sunday on whether to open a criminal investigation into allegations that the Israel Defense Forces committed war crimes during two operations in the Gaza Strip in 2004.

The court will hold the hearing following a petition by Adalah, the legal center for Arab minority rights in Israel. The organization petitioned the court to order a criminal investigation concerning the death of Palestinian citizens during Operation Rainbow in May 2004 and Operation Days of Penitence the following October.

Dozens of Palestinians - 44 of them children - were killed in the two operations, and 258 houses were destroyed. According to the petition, the houses were home to 522 families.

	Advertisement

Adalah's petition charges Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, the military advocate general, Brigadier General Avichai Mandelblitt and Brigadier General (res.) Shmuel Zakai, then commander of the Gaza Region Division, with war crimes.

In addition, it accuses the top echelon of the defense establishment of complicity in the killings. The officials named include Major-General Dan Harel, who was then chief of the Southern Command, as well as then chief-of-staff Moshe Ya'alon and then defense minister Shaul Mofaz.

According to Adalah, the two operations constituted a violation of humanitarian laws as well as the Geneva Convention of 1949. They claim that the IDF also violated the Hague Convention of 1907 and international law. "The parties named as well as those who acted on their orders are responsible for the crimes," the petition reads.

Mazuz and Mandelblitt have so far rejected Adalah's demands to initiate a criminal investigation regarding the two operations. "The refusal is dangerous even from their point of view, since they are ignoring war crimes that can be specified before an international legal instance that upholds the principles of international law," Adalah wrote.

Adalah has warned that if the court refuses to initiate a criminal investigation, then it will petition international courts.

Adalah included in the petition reports by human rights organizations regarding the actions of the IDF. Among them were reports by organizations belonging to the United Nations, which told of massive destruction and damages to the local population. The petition also included journalistic accounts by Haaretz correspondents Gideon Levi and Amira Hass.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) also contributed to the petition. The organization refuted the claims of the IDF that Operation Rainbow was aimed at halting smuggling from Egypt to Gaza. HRW suggested that smuggling can be prevented in other ways than massive urban destruction. HRW claims the operation was motivated by revenge for the killing of soldiers in the area the previous week.

"The impunity which commanders and soldiers enjoy in Israel does not impress international legal instances, which aim to implement international law with honesty and fairness," Adalah wrote.