by Yonah Jeremy Bob
Officers say allegations of Israel trying to starve and deliberately kill civilians are baseless.
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The Higher Level Military Group has submitted a legal brief to the International Criminal Court seeking to convince the judges to reject a request by ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan for arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The specific legal group includes top former military generals and military legal officials from several North American and European countries who in July visited a wide variety of IDF bases and humanitarian aid sites at both higher and lower command levels throughout Israel and Gaza.
In the brief, the group addresses Khan’s two main thrusts for prosecuting Netanyahu and Gallant: charges of alleged starvation and charges of alleged deliberate killing of Palestinians by the IDF under orders.
Regarding the charges of starvation, the brief finds that Israel and the IDF’s humanitarian efforts were initially delayed by several days of fighting to expel the Hamas invasion, which went on for the greater part of the week after October 7 as well as another week of initial massive deployment efforts of around 100,000 troops to the Gaza front, many of whom also lacked proper food and supplies at times.
However, from October 21 onward, the group found that the IDF facilitated humanitarian aid convoys (initially via the Nitzana Crossing.)
Further, the group said that there is no war crime for first providing aid to one’s troops at a minimal level before facilitating aid to a foreign civilian population and that the delay was short-lived and did not lead to starvation given the food and supplies previously stocked up in Gaza.
NEXT, the group calls out Khan for implying that Israel closed the Erez and Rafah crossings when Hamas destroyed the Erez crossing, and the Rafah crossing has always been a mixed project between Israel and Egypt.
Arguments over whether Kerem Shalom crossing could have opened earlier
Regarding the Kerem Shalom crossing, which was only opened in mid-December, there are complex arguments about whether it could not have been opened earlier because the IDF did not have sufficient security control in northern Gaza to keep the crossing and aid coming from it safe, or whether there were internal Israeli political issues. But, generally, the group argues that there is no evidence of Israel wholesale blocking aid.
Rather, the group asserts that the IDF set innovative and high standards for providing aid in a complex urban warfare zone where Hamas was trying to steal or siphon the aid away from its own civilian population, making the challenges involved beyond anything that other democracies have had to contend with.
In addressing targeting issues, the group said that the IDF had developed innovative technologies to help move and map out the movements of large Palestinian civilian groups to ensure their safety despite massive security challenges.
According to the brief, the IDF is up against a unique enemy, in that Hamas systematically uses its civilian population and their civilian buildings like hospitals, mosques, and schools, as human shields.
Further, the brief noted that Hamas fired 10,000 rockets into Israel’s home front, ongoing through July and August, something that Western militaries have not had to face.
Most importantly, the group interviewed forward commanders and troops and found that their understanding of the laws of war corresponded to proper views as directed by the IDF legal division.
From the perspective of the ICC’s own laws, the brief said that it was premature for Khan to get involved when the IDF is still at the early and middle stages of probing its own alleged war crimes.
In fact, the group said that the IDF is now probing around 300 possible war crimes from the current war, nearly double the previous number reported.
Yonah Jeremy Bob
Source: https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/article-813579
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