Word: israells
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...guns have been largely silent for more than six months now, but the battle to define what exactly took place during Israel's 22-day military operation in Gaza in January rages as fiercely as ever. Earlier this month, Amnesty International published the findings of its inquiry into the conflict, accusing both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes. Just this week, Britain announced that it had banned the sale to Israel of spare parts for its Saar 4.5 class corvette, because of the way the missile vessel had been used by Israel during the Gaza operation. An official...
Having insisted throughout the war that it was taking extraordinary care to avoid civilian casualties, Israel has rejected allegations to the contrary, suggesting they lack a basis in fact and are instead driven by agendas hostile to the Jewish State. But suggestions of bias and hostility toward Israel are a more difficult response when similar claims are made by Israeli soldiers involved in the operation. In March, a group of soldiers who had fought in Gaza told a forum at an Israeli military college of a number of instances in which Palestinian civilians had been killed as a result...
Some also testified that officers from the Israeli military's rabbinate unit had addressed troops and distributed materials that defined the conflict as a religious war and spoke of the Palestinians as usurpers in the biblical land of Israel. That along with previous reports on brochures distributed by the military rabbinate warning that "exercising mercy towards a cruel enemy means being cruel towards innocent and honest soldiers," allegedly helped create an atmosphere in which there was insufficient concern for Palestinian civilians, say some of the soldiers who spoke to Breaking the Silence. (Watch TIME's video "Protesting Gaza, Carefully...
Half a year after the offensive, Gaza remains a gaping wound, little changed from how the Israelis left it when they withdrew in January. Its recovery is hampered by an ongoing Israeli blockade that prevents most reconstruction materials from entering the territory amid ongoing political deadlock between Israel and Hamas over captive soldier Gilad Shalit and between Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas over political authority in the area. And the publication of the soldiers' testimonies - whatever Israelis make of them - is more evidence that closure on the 22-day war may still elude Israelis...
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