Israel Promises Troops Legal Backing over Gaza War Crimes.

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - International calls to investigate Israel over alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip prompted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday to promise military personnel state protection from foreign prosecution.

"The commanders and soldiers sent to Gaza should know they are safe from various tribunals and Israel will assist them on this front and defend them, just as they protected us with their bodies during the Gaza operation," Olmert said.

Last week, the military censor ordered local and foreign media in Israel to blur the faces of army commanders in photos and video footage of the Gaza war for fear they could be identified and arrested while traveling abroad.

Israeli media reports said the military had been advising its top brass to think twice about visiting Europe.

Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, Olmert said Israel's justice minister would consult with the country's top legal experts and find "answers to possible questions relating to the Israeli military's activities" during the 22-day war.

Some 1,300 Palestinians, including at least 700 civilians, were killed, medical officials said, in the offensive Israel launched in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with the declared aim of ending cross-border rocket attacks.

The civilian deaths sparked public outcry abroad and prompted senior U.N. officials to demand independent investigations into whether Israel committed war crimes.

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Iran calls UN to take legal action against Israel

Iran calls on the UN to take legal action against Israel after its soldiers admitted to the illegal use of white phosphorous in Gaza.

Israel’s policies against the Palestinians are tantamount to a “crime against humanity”, the United Nations’ human rights rapporteur has said.
Iran calls on the UN to take legal action against Israel after its soldiers admitted to the illegal use of white phosphorous in Gaza.
The Iranian ambassador to the UN, Mohammad Khazaee, called on the United Nations on Sunday to address international concern over possible war crimes committed by Tel Aviv in its recent military operations in Gaza.
“Israel’s extreme measures against Gazans constitute a breach of humanitarian law,” Khazaee affirmed in a meeting with Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) ambassadors in New York.
Iranian leaders demads “they would urge the United Nations to bring Israeli leaders before an international court over the latest attacks in the Gaza Strip.”
After weeks of denying that it used white phosphorus in the densely-populated Gaza Strip, the Israeli military finally admitted Friday that it had pounded the Palestinian coast with at least twenty white phosphorus bombs.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for immediate legal action against Israeli leaders for the humanitarian crisis and death of innocent civilians in the Palestinian territory, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said.

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Israel accused of war crimes over 12-hour assault on a Gaza Village

White flags ignored and houses bulldozed with families inside, claim residents

• Fida Qishta in Khuza'a and Peter Beaumont in London
• The Observer, Sunday 18 January 2009
• Article history

Israel stands accused of perpetrating a series of war crimes during a sustained 12-hour assault on a village in southern Gaza last week in which 14 people died.

In testimony collected from residents of the village of Khuza'a by the Observer, it is claimed that Israeli soldiers entering the village:

• attempted to bulldoze houses with civilians inside;

• killed civilians trying to escape under the protection of white flags;

• opened fire on an ambulance attempting to reach the wounded;

• used indiscriminate force in a civilian area and fired white phosphorus shells.

If the allegations are upheld, all the incidents would constitute breaches of the Geneva conventions.

The denunciations over what happened in Khuza'a follow repeated claims of possible human rights violations from the Red Cross, the UN and human rights organisations.

The Israeli army announced yesterday that it was investigating "at the highest level" five other attacks against civilians in Gaza, involving two UN facilities and a hospital. It added that in all cases initial investigations suggested soldiers were responding to fire. "These claims of war crimes are not supported by the slightest piece of evidence," said Yigal Palmor, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman.

Concern over what occurred in the village of Khuza'a in the early hours of Tuesday was first raised by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. Although an Israeli military spokesman said he had "no information that this alleged incident took place", witness statements collected by the Observer are consistent and match testimony gathered by B'Tselem.

There is also strong visible evidence that Khuza'a came under a sustained attack from tanks and bulldozers that smashed some buildings to pieces.

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CNN: Israel Uses White Phosphorous Against Palestinian Civil

CNN's Ben Wedeman reports that Israel is hesitant to answer questions about its use of white phosphorous weapons.

SEE: 10 Steps You Can Take to Help Gaza
http://tinyurl.com/977zqd

YouTube Category: News & Politics

YouTubeTags: Gaza CAIR Council on American-islamic Relations Israel white phosphorous Palestinian civilians

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An example of the atrocities afflicted upon the Gazan children with white phosphorous...[very graphic video]

The pale blue 155mm rounds are clearly marked with thedesignation M825A1,

an American-made white phosphorus munition

Gaza victims' burns increase concern over phosphorous

Michael Evans, Defence Editor and Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem
Photographic evidence has emerged that proves that Israel has been using controversial white phosphorus shells during its offensive in Gaza, despite official denials by the Israel Defence Forces.
There is also evidence that the rounds have injured Palestinian civilians, causing severe burns. The use of white phosphorus against civilians is prohibited under international law.
The Times has identified stockpiles of white phosphorus (WP) shells from high-resolution images taken of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) artillery units on the Israeli-Gaza border this week. The pale blue 155mm rounds are clearly marked with the designation M825A1, an American-made WP munition. The shell is an improved version with a more limited dispersion of the phosphorus, which ignites on contact with oxygen, and is being used by the Israeli gunners to create a smoke screen on the ground.
The rounds, which explode into a shower of burning white streaks, were first identified by The Times at the weekend when they were fired over Gaza at the start of Israel's ground offensive. Artillery experts said that the Israeli troops would be in trouble if they were banned from using WP because it is the simplest way of creating smoke to protect them from enemy fire.
There were indications last night that Palestinian civilians have been injured by the bombs, which burn intensely. Hassan Khalass, a doctor at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, told The Times that he had been dealing with patients who he suspected had been burnt by white phosphorus. Muhammad Azayzeh, 28, an emergency medical technician in the city, said: “The burns are very unusual. They don't look like burns we have normally seen. They are third-level burns that we can't seem to control.”
Victims with embedded WP particles in their flesh have to have the affected areas flushed with water. Particles that cannot be removed with tweezers are covered with a saline-soaked dressing.
Nafez Abu Shaban, the head of the burns unit at al-Shifa hospital, said: “I am not familiar with phosphorus but many of the patients wounded in the past weeks have strange burns. They are very deep and not like burns we used to see.”
When The Times reported on Monday that the Israeli troops appeared to be firing WP shells to create a thick smoke camouflage for units advancing into Gaza, an IDF spokesman denied the use of phosphorus and said that Israel was using only the weapons that were allowed under international law.




The graphic video of a Gazanz crying over the charred corpse
of a young child.