Army police winds down Gaza human shields investigation
Inquiry finds no basis for claims that IDF troops hid behind noncombatants during Operation Cast Lead.
By Haaretz Service Tags: Goldstone report Israel news GazaMilitary police have ended two investigations into the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields during Operation Cast Lead after concluding there was no basis for the claims, Army Radio reported on Wednesday.
The army had been probing allegations in a controversial United Nations report by retired South African Judge Richard Goldstone that IDF troops intentionally hid behind noncombatants during Israel's three-week offensive in Gaza last year.
According to testimony received by Goldstone from the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, soldiers from the army's Golani brigade forced civilians at gunpoint into shielding them from enemy fire.
The military advocate general, Major General Avichai Mandelblit, ordered the files to be closed after investigators interviewed Gaza residents involved in the fighting in late 2008 and early 2009, in which some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
"There is no dispute that during the military conflagration the use of human shields was completely forbidden, but this is not what occurred here," Mandelblit wrote in his case report.
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IDF troops in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. |
| Photo by: (Archive) |
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Cover up to no one's surprise. Why bother with "investigations" except to provide ammo to trash anyone who cites the Goldstone Report's finding that Israel used human shields and deliberately shot civilians waving white flags, i.e., "The Israeli Army conducted a thorough investigation and found there was no use of blah blah and anyone who says otherwise is an anti-Semite."
"No, that was Hamas that uses human shields. Palestinians = human shield for Hamas" Didn't the Goldstone report say there was no evidence found of this? Goldstone is more believable than the IDF investigating itself...
No, that was Hamas that uses human shields. Palestinians = human shield for Hamas
..." the hawk does not peck the eye of the another hawk"
No surprise there. Military investigations in Israel always come up with the same result. That's why noone takes any notice of them.
guess. Therefore they were not used to shield from enemy fire. Things can be explained so easily.
Mandelblit should be more careful with ambiguous sentences... "There is no dispute that during the military conflagration the use of human shields was completely forbidden, but this is not what occurred here," Mandelblit wrote in his case report.
clears itself. They can't compliment themselves enough can they? And whoever tries to say the opposite...well we all know they're antisemites right?