ISRAEL ‘FAILED TO INVESTIGATE’ SENIOR SOLDIERS OVER GAZA PROTEST KILLINGS

▶ Denials over deaths of 200 Palestinians strengthen case for International Criminal Court to step in, rights groups say

Israel has failed to investigate shootings that killed more than 200 Palestinians and wounded thousands at violent protests on the Gaza frontier in recent years, rights groups have said.

The Israeli military rejected the findings, which campaigners said strengthened the case for the International Criminal Court to intervene.

The “mass riots” organised by Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers were aimed at providing cover for cross-border attacks, the military said.

Beginning in March 2018, Gaza activists organised weekly protests aimed initially at highlighting the plight of Palestinian refugees from what is now Israel.

They make up about 75 per cent of Gaza’s population of more than two million. But Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, used the protests to push for the easing of the Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed on the territory.

Every week for about 18 months, thousands of Palestinians gathered at different points along the frontier. Groups of protesters burnt tyres, hurled stones and firebombs, and tried to breach the security fence.

Israeli snipers fired live ammunition, rubber-coated bullets and tear gas in what Israel said was self-defence, to prevent thousands of Palestinians — including potentially armed Hamas operatives — from rushing into Israel.

Israeli fire killed at least 215 Palestinians, most of them unarmed, Gaza’s Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights said. Hundreds of others were seriously wounded in the demonstrations, which wound down in late 2019. An Israeli soldier was killed by a Palestinian sniper in 2018 and several others were wounded.

A report released on Thursday by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem and the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) said the military failed to investigate orders issued by senior commanders and took virtually no action against any soldiers.

As of April, out of 143 cases transferred to military prosecutors by an Israeli fact-finding mechanism, 95 were closed with no further action.

Only one — the killing of a 14-year-old Palestinian — led to a prosecution, with the remainder still pending, the report said. The soldier was convicted and sentenced to one month of community service.

More than 13,000 Palestinians were wounded over 18 months of protests. The report said the military’s fact-finding mechanism reviewed only 234 cases in which Palestinians were killed, including some deaths unrelated to the demonstrations.

The Israeli military said it had carried out the investigations in a “thorough and in-depth manner” and filed charges in two incidents in which soldiers were convicted and sentenced.

The International Criminal Court this year launched an investigation into potential war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza since 2014.

Israel has rejected the investigation, saying the court was biased and that Israel’s justice system was capable of conducting its own probe in line with international standards.

Israel is not a party to the ICC but Israeli officials could be subject to arrest in other countries if it hands down warrants. Israel could potentially fend off the probe by proving it has launched credible investigations of its own. B’Tselem and the PCHR say Israel has failed to meet those requirements. Yuval Shany, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and a member of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty of law, said Israel could be vulnerable to ICC action over its response to the protests but that the bar is relatively low for a country to prove it has investigated itself.

“It’s certainly not about actually prosecuting anyone. It’s really about genuinely investigating the incidents,” he said.

“It’s unclear whether Israel will co-operate with the court to try to prove its case.

“There’s also the question of whether the prosecutors view Israel’s response to the protests as a law enforcement action or as an armed conflict with Hamas.”

Out of 143 cases sent to prosecutors by an Israeli fact-finding mechanism, 95 were closed with no further action