So does "purity of arms" prevent Israel from committing war crimes and crimes against humanity? A UN report suggests not. I'll review the report in the next few posts for those who don't know what actually happened.
The report is of a properly constituted fact-finding mission asked to investigate whether various human rights breaches occurred in or in relation to the recent conflict in Gaza regardless of who committed the breaches. There is thus no evidence of bias in either the terms of reference for the mission or the make up of its membership despite Israeli claims.
The mission considered that the predominant issue was the treatment of all civilians and the full context required their treatment to be considered in all of Israel (including West Jerusalem) and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) from the Hamas/Israel “Cease Fire” [the mission’s inverted commas] of 18 June 2008 until 31 July 2009.
For the purpose of the mission the mission members conducted public hearings in Gaza (where they also conducted field enquiries for around two weeks all up) and Geneva, called for and received submissions and also visited Amman for two days for interviews necessitated to be held there by Israel’s non-cooperation in permitting access to territory controlled by Israel. Israel did not cooperate with the mission at all and the mission was not permitted to visit either Israel or the West Bank (entry to Gaza itself appears to have only been possible with the cooperation of Egypt via the Rafah crossing, entry to southern Israel (another site of special interest) was obviously denied and Israel may have penalised, by ongoing imprisonment, at least one person for having given direct evidence to the mission following the giving of that evidence and upon that person’s return to Israeli controlled territory).
The hostilities were formally initiated by Israel on 27 December 2008 with the commencement of bombing in retaliation for rocket and mortar fire from Gaza (that had been occurring between the 18 June 2008 ceasefire agreement and 27 December 2008) that preceded an invasion and continued until the 18 January 2009 withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. As I mentioned above, the mission considers the entire period from 18 June 2008 to 18 January 2009 and also up to 31 July 2009.
First the report considers this period of alleged provocation by Gazans. The report found that Israel was engaged in the period in an economic and social blockade of Gaza and further that the 4th Geneva Convention requires that civilian populations be protected from adverse humanitarian events resulting from blockades without conditions. The mission considers that the blockade contravened and contravenes that requirement (more detail in later posts).
The actual 3 January 2009 to 18 January invasion and occupation was supported by the Israeli air force and shelling from the Israeli navy and pre-invasion bombing from 27 December 2008 and was conducted by eight brigades (including one paratroop brigade and five armoured brigades).
Total fatal casualties on the Gazan side in Gaza appear to have been around 1,400 (Israel claims a figure of around 1,100 and Hamas claims somewhat more than 1,400 fatal casualties). Reports suggest an unacceptably high proportion of civilian casualties and thus a prima facie case of undue recklessness on the part of the Israeli military. I will further consider the Gazan part in this (and the Israeli part in more detail) in later posts.
The total fatal casualty figure in southern Israel from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009 appears to be four of which one death was that of a soldier. In Gaza itself, fatal casualty figures on the Israeli side amounted to 9 Israeli soldiers killed of whom 4 deaths were as the result of “friendly fire”. This suggests that the issue of proportionality may be relevant to the humanitarian questions being considered here.
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