Word: gaza
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...investigation concluded that Israel's January offensive in Gaza had been "a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population." It also slammed the Jewish state's economic blockade of the territory. At the same time, it accused Hamas of war crimes for firing rockets at Israeli civilians. Israel, which refused to cooperate with the probe, slammed it as biased and accused it of "rewarding terrorism." That follows the pattern of Israel's dismissal of a steady stream of similar assessments of the Gaza operation by Israeli and international human rights organizations. On the basis...
Anyone waiting for Israeli generals and political leaders to face war crimes charges at The Hague over January's Gaza invasion ought not to hold their breath, despite a new report by a U.N. Human Rights Council accusing both Israel and Hamas of war crimes during the confrontation. And despite Israel's disquiet over losing the battle for international public opinion and growing criticism over its actions in Palestinian territories, the Israeli military is unlikely to do much differently the next time it goes into Gaza...
...Although Israel is aware of having lost the Gaza battle in the court of international public opinion - and has warned officers involved in the operation of the danger of arrest in third countries while traveling in their private capacities - the operation enjoyed overwhelming domestic political support. And Israel's heavy-handed approach in what it called Operation Cast Lead, which inflicted heavy casualties and widespread damage to Gaza's infrastructure, has been embraced as a model of effectiveness by the Israeli military, because it is seen as having ensured that Israeli forces suffered hardly any casualties while operating against...
...Hamas, for its part, was similarly dismissive of the report's findings on its rocket fire. "This report equates the victim with the aggressor," said Hamas Gaza spokseman Ismael Radwan, a statement that sums up the Israeli position, too. At the very heart of the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate, after all, is the question of just who is the victim...
Rather than focusing on the specifics of this report, it would be wonderful to see Israelis and the Palestinians find a stable resolution to their conflict. We are of course aware that such a resolution may be far off, but in the wake of the tragedies in Gaza, we can only hope that it will be reached...