Agencies/Jerusalem
Israel’s military said it had opened eight new criminal investigations into its Gaza war operations, including cases involving the deaths of 30 Palestinians.
The internal inquiries could help Israel challenge the work of a UN Human Rights Council commission of inquiry into possible war crimes committed by its forces and Palestinian militants in the 50-day conflict in July and August. Israel has said it would not co-operate with the panel, accusing it of bias.
More than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed in the fighting, according to the Gaza health ministry. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed.
The military said late on Saturday it would investigate a July 20 air strike on the Abu Jama family home in the town of Khan Younis in which 27 Palestinians were killed. Human rights groups said the dead were civilians.
The new probes will also examine the deaths of two Palestinian ambulance drivers on July 25 in Israeli strikes and a July 29 incident in which, according to a rights group, a Palestinian carrying a white flag was killed.
Four other inquiries will look into looting allegations.
In September, the military opened five criminal investigations into its Gaza war operations, including attacks that killed four Palestinian children on a beach and 17 people at a UN school. About 85 incidents are under various stages of legal review by the military.
Israel has said Hamas bears ultimate responsibility for civilian casualties because the group’s fighters operated in crowded neighbourhoods.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said the new Israeli investigations were aimed at circumventing the UN inquiry. He called for “independent probes to bring Israeli war criminals to justice”.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive on July 8 with the declared aim of halting cross-border rocket salvoes by Hamas. The fighting was ended by an Egyptian-brokered truce.
Late on Saturday, the Israeli navy detained for questioning 12 Palestinian fishermen on five boats that strayed from an Israeli-designated fishing zone off Gaza, the military said. It was the largest such group taken into custody since the ceasefire went into effect.
Nezar Ayyash, head of the Gaza fishermen’s union, denied the six-mile (10km) maritime limit was breached. In past incidents, fishermen have been released shortly after being detained.
*Israeli police and the Shin Bet internal security organisation reported yesterday the arrest of multiple suspects in connection with an arson attack last month on a Jewish-Arab school in Jerusalem.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld was unable to give further details, citing a gag order. He said the investigation was ongoing and the suspects in remand.
The bilingual school, a symbol of co-existence between the two cultures, was torched on November 29.
Hebrew slogans like “There is no co-existence with cancer” were spray-painted on the school’s walls.
Israeli Education Minister Shai Piron spoke of a “malicious and abominable attack that shook the anchors or Israeli democracy”.
The arson attack sparked widespread outrage and condemnation. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin invited Jewish and Arab pupils to play soccer at his official residence in response to the attack.
