Ever since the UN Human Rights Council issued its controversial Goldstone Report, which accused Israel of committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during its war with Hamas terrorists last year in Gaza, Israel and the Palestinians have been fighting a public relations war in an effort to influence world opinion.<\/p>\n
The Report said that Israel used disproportionate force and accused its Army of using human shields and collective punishment. Though it doesn\u2019t directly blame Hamas for inciting the battle, it does charge Palestinian militants with war crimes for their indiscriminate firing of missiles and rockets into Israel.<\/p>\n
While both the Palestinian Authority and\u00a0Hamas, which controls Gaza,\u00a0welcomed the report\u2019s findings, the Israelis did not.<\/p>\n
As part of that effort, Israel sent a number of its military officers to the U.S. to give eyewitness accounts of what they saw during Israel’s 22-day incursion into Gaza.<\/p>\n
The officers were all actively involved in the fighting. Speaking to Fox News they gave their side of the story, offering the reader a rare inside look at the inner workings of the operation. Israeli military rules state that the officers may only be identified by first name and rank.<\/p>\n
Hamas used civilians as human shields says F-15 pilot Yaniv. He said this would often result in his having to abort missions, even though they had spotted Hamas operatives firing from the buildings.<\/p>\n
Captain Yaniv said the Israeli military went out of its way to avoid civilian casualties, using what they called the “knock on roof” tactic. When upon discovering Hamas fighters using residential buildings to fire on Israeli positions they would call the residents by phone, shout at them or drop leaflets ordering them to leave immediately. Through intelligence gathered by the drones, they knew exactly how many people were inside, and if they had the slightest doubt that civilians were present, the mission would be aborted.<\/p>\n
Major Yaron details how Hamas operatives would use their family homes for cover. He told Fox News they would divide it by using the basement as a storage area for ammunition and rockets; the ground floor would be used as their communications HQ, the second floor as their office, and the family living quarters spread out on the 3rd and 4th floors. The idea is that if they live like this they \u201cknow the Israelis won\u2019t attack.”<\/p>\n
Air Force captain Daniel, a drone operator said he would often see \u201cHamas terrorists fire rockets and flee into crowded streets knowing that the IDF would use restraint.\u201d<\/p>\n
Omri is a lieutenant in the bomb disposal unit. He tells the story of a woman in the building they were occupying who needed diapers for her newborn baby. His commander ordered five soldiers to escort her to get diapers from another part of the neighborhood. All this was done as mortars and gunfire erupted all around them.<\/p>\n
Omri tells Fox News that Hamas would use mosques to stash ammunition and fire on Israeli troops. He recalls the time he saw a cache of ammunition under the preacher\u2019s podium as well as propaganda manuals, and even instructions telling children how to fight, which included children\u2019s toy guns supposedly for them to practice with.<\/p>\n
Major Yaron who commanded soldiers deep inside Gaza city tells Fox News of an incident that occurred following the death of one of his soldiers. The dead soldier\u2019s friend\u00a0reacted badly to the death and painted graffiti on the walls where they were held up. This resulted in the soldier being immediately sent home and given a court martial. The Major ordered his soldiers to scrub the walls clean, saying, \u201cthis is how we are trained to fight.”<\/p>\n
Asked about the Goldstone\u2019s report finding that Israel committed war crimes, Major Yaron says absolutely not. He says there is no room for that in the rules of conduct which are drilled into every soldier during training.<\/p>\n
The other officers agree and point to the Israeli Defense Forces booklet called, \u201cThe Spirit of the IDF\u201d, which is given to every soldier in the IDF. It spells out what is expected of them, and according to Captain Daniel, it\u2019s something that is \u201cingrained in all soldiers, and it\u2019s the value at the heart of the IDF.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two most important sections, according to the officers are the sections on \u201cHuman Life\u201d and \u201cPurity of Arms\u201d (Morality in Warfare). The section on Human Life begins with the following sentence; \u201cThe soldier shall always act with reason and caution, bearing in mind the supreme value of human life.\u201d Purity in Arms says that \u201cThe soldier shall not employ his weaponry and power in order to harm non-combatants or prisoners of war, and shall do all he can to avoid harming their lives, bodies, honor and property.\u201d<\/p>\n
As to Goldstone\u2019s other findings, Moshe a lieutenant at the army\u2019s counter-terrorism school, and who fought in Gaza wants to know where Goldstone and his report team got their ideas, he says he\u2019d like to meet with Goldstone and \u201cconvince him of his experiences. I want to know why he wrote those things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Air Force captain Yaniv is critical of the report. He contends that it does not give Israel the right to self-defense. He says \u201cat the beginning it\u2019s bias, at the very beginning\u201d, and he says that\u2019s a \u201cproblem.\u201d His Air Force colleague, Captain Daniel complains that Goldstone never says that Israel had a right to self-defense under international law.<\/p>\n
As to their frustration felt by the media\u2019s overall coverage of the war, one of the officers says that maybe Israel\u2019s foreign ministry and IDF spokesman\u2019s office could have done a better job, but all agree that\u2019s not their job. They all say their first responsibility is to secure the borders of Israel from attack and protect the country\u2019s citizens.<\/p>\n
Israel set up its own investigation to look at any abuses that might have taken place during the conflict. According to a report update they are presently investigating 150 claims of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
The Israeli\u2019s say their system for investigating violations of the Law of Armed conflict is equivalent to those of the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ever since the UN Human Rights Council issued its controversial Goldstone Report, which accused Israel of committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during its war with Hamas terrorists last year in Gaza, Israel and the Palestinians have been fighting a public relations war in an effort to influence world opinion. The Report said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6075,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-438841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6075"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}