Israel Releases Detailed Report on Gaza War

About a year after last summer's war between the Israeli army and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a "detailed report" on the country's actions during this war on Sunday, June 24. According to Israeli media and Reuters, the ministry released its report ahead of the United Nations' report on the military operations to justify Israel's "commitment to international law and the laws of war" to global public opinion and governments. The Israeli army, in an operation that lasted 51 days and was named "Protective Edge," stated that it aimed to "respond to the rocket fire from armed groups in Gaza towards Israeli cities." The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs' report referenced the thousands of rockets fired by Palestinian organizations towards various Israeli cities, the numerous "terrorist" tunnels dug under residential buildings in Gaza into Israeli territory, and the execution of dozens of Gaza residents by Hamas on charges of "collaborating with Israel" during the war. The report claims that despite the wartime atmosphere, Israel provided the "most food, medical, and pharmaceutical assistance" to ordinary people in Gaza. It states that the Israeli army used precise and advanced equipment to target locations from which "terrorist activities" were conducted and informed people in areas that were being bombed or were about to be subjected to ground fire through various means to evacuate. The report accuses Hamas of committing "war crimes" and claims that 44% of the casualties in that war were "terror operatives" from Hamas or other Palestinian organizations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, upon the release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs report, which he also oversees, stated that the Israeli army made "the utmost effort" to avoid civilian casualties, but Hamas deliberately turned civilians into "human shields." Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon also spoke on Sunday about what he termed the "highest level of precision and caution" in the Israeli army's actions against "terrorist" organizations. However, according to Ya'alon, "the enemy was firing rockets from within hospitals, residential buildings, schools, and even mosques... while knowing that Israel would attack the locations from which rockets were being fired." The United Nations is set to release its detailed report on this war in the coming days. However, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, recently communicated a summary of the organization's report, which included descriptions of Israeli attacks on UN-affiliated organizations in Gaza. Israel did not cooperate with UN special reporters for the preparation of this report, claiming that the UN Human Rights Council consistently takes a "biased" stance against Israel and "automatically votes against Israel." Israel argues that some members of the UN Human Rights Council are countries that themselves are considered highly authoritarian regimes and demonstrate anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli intentions in their votes against Israel. Israel condemned the investigative commission appointed by the UN Human Rights Council and repeatedly criticized its Canadian chair, Professor William Schabas, even accusing him of receiving money from the Palestine Liberation Organization. Professor Schabas recently resigned following the release of a document by Israel regarding receiving money from the Palestine Liberation Organization as "consultation," so that the report prepared by the investigative commission could be published without his involvement. Benjamin Netanyahu has already referred to the upcoming UN report as a "waste of time." The war flared up shortly after the kidnapping and murder of three Jewish teenagers by two Palestinians in the vicinity of Jerusalem. It later became clear that the two kidnappers were not officially members of Hamas but were only aligned with the organization. However, Israel retaliated for that kidnapping and also in response to rocket attacks by Hamas with long-range rockets on Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, bombarding Gaza with heavy airstrikes and ground fire for 51 days. In addition to heavy casualties, tens of thousands of homes in Gaza were destroyed, and some neighborhoods in this densely populated strip were completely devastated. In the last Gaza war, over 2,100 Palestinians and 72 Israelis were killed; 67 of the Israeli casualties were military personnel and only five were civilians.