Gaza War: More than 1000 of 1387 Dead Were Civilians, Policemen

The Full List of Casualties from B'Tselem

The following is the official release from the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem:

Israeli security forces killed 1,387 Palestinians during the course of the three-week operation. Of these, 773 did not take part in the hostilities, including 320 minors and 109 women over the age of 18. Of those killed, 330 took part in the hostilities, and 248 were Palestinian police officers, most of whom were killed in aerial bombings of police stations on the first day of the operation. For 36 people, B’Tselem could not determine whether they participated in the hostilities or not.

Palestinians killed 9 Israelis during the operation: 3 civilians and one member of the security forces by rockets fired into southern Israel, and 5 soldiers in the Gaza Strip. Another 4 soldiers were killed by friendly fire.

B'Tselem’s figures, the result of months of meticulous investigation and cross-checks with numerous sources, sharply contradict those published by the Israeli military.

Israel stated that 1,166 Palestinians were killed in the operation and that 60% of them were members of Hamas and other armed groups. According to the military, a total of 295 Palestinians who were “not involved” in the fighting were killed. As the military refused to provide B'Tselem its list of fatalities, a comparison of names was not possible. However, the blatant discrepancy between the numbers is intolerable. For example, the military claims that altogether 89 minors under the age of 16 died in the operation. However, B'Tselem visited homes and gathered death certificates, photos, and testimonies relating to all 252 children under 16, and has the details of 111 women over 16 killed.

Behind the dry statistics lie shocking individual stories. Whole families were killed; parents saw their children shot before their very eyes; relatives watched their loved ones bleed to death; and entire neighborhoods were obliterated.

The extremely heavy civilian casualties and the massive damage to civilian property require serious introspection on the part of Israeli society. B'Tselem recognizes the complexity of combat in a densely populated area against armed groups that do not hesitate to use illegal means and find refuge within the civilian population. However, illegal and immoral actions by these organizations cannot legitimize such extensive harm to civilians by a state committed to the rule of law.

The extent of civilian fatalities does not, in itself, prove that Israeli violated the laws of war. However, the figures must be considered within the context of the numerous testimonies given by soldiers and Palestinians during and after the operation, which raise grave concerns that Israel breached fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and caused excessive harm to civilians. The magnitude of this harm requires Israel to conduct an independent and credible investigation, and not make do with military debriefings. Shortly after the operation, B'Tselem published guidelines for such an investigation and sent the Judge Advocate General’s Office some twenty illustrative cases, in which a total of about 90 Palestinian civilians were killed, demanding that they be investigated.

B’Tselem’s list of fatalities in Operation Cast Lead has been sent to the IDF Spokesperson’s Office for comment.

Organizations that participated in the statement: The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Bimkom, B’Tselem, Gisha, Physicians for Human Rights, Adalah , Yesh Din, HaMoked,Center for the Defence of the Individual, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Rabbis for Human Rights

Middle East Inside Line: Israel Ground War with Lebanon?

Is Israel Backing Away from Shalit Release?
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak had two significant messages for high school students on Tuesday. First, as German mediators await a Hamas response over the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Barak said Israel "would do every way to secure Shalit's release but not at any cost....The time has come to say bluntly: combat troops and soldiers arrive with the knowledge that the task of fulfilling their missions entails a willingness to risk their lives and that the fighters have that willingness to undertake the mission."

Barak's second message was just as tough:

We cannot blur the basic truth... We are a generation of fighters and in the Middle East, there is no mercy for the weak and there will not be a second opportunity for those who do not know how to defend themselves.

Israeli Military on Ground War with Lebanon: The commander of Israeli ground forces (and soon the head of the Israel Defense Forces' Central Comman) Major-General Avi Mizrachi,  OC Ground Forces Command Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrachi,  has told a conference of more than 100 military officers from almost 30 countries that "the future battlefield the IDF will face will be more difficult, lethal and uncertain":

A war cannot be won without moving forces on the ground....Even today there are people who believe that it is sufficient to threaten to use the forces but in the Middle East this is not enough. Only a ground maneuver will end the conflict and win the war.

OK, but where will be that "future battlefield" be?

The head of the Israeli Armored Corps Brigadier-General Agay Yehezkeli said that, in case of a war between Lebanon and Israel, the IDF would need to launch a quick ground operation, heavily dependent on tanks, deep into Lebanese territory to curb rocket attacks. Chief Infantry Officer Brigadier General Yossi Bahar disagreed: several brigades would be capable of conquering southern Lebanon and taking control of the 165 villages south of the Litani River.

Conflict between Israel and European Media Widens: The controversy over a Swedish newspaper's coverage of the allegation that Israeli troops harvested the organs of dead Palestinians has been joined by a second furour. The Spanish daily El Mundo is interviewing historians to mark 70 years since the start of World War II; one of them is David Irving, who served time in an Austrian prison for his denial of the Holocaust..

Israeli diplomatic circles and media are furious over Irving, whose interview appears on Saturday, being considered as an expert. The Israeli Ambassador to Spain, Raphael Schutz, argued that the publication would give credibility to Irving and his ideas. El Mundo responded that the interview was part of freedom of the press.

Meanwhile, the Swedish-Israeli dispute has another participant. Syrian President Bashir al-Assad's spokeswoman Bouthaina Shaaban praised the article in the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday, saying that "Israel should be put on trial" and giving a lengthy explanation of "Soprano-like networks", run by US rabbis, "to sell the kidneys of Palestinian martyrs in the US black market".

Yossi Levy, the Foreign Ministry's spokesman for the Israeli press, responded, "It is not surprising that Damascus smelled the anti-Semitism emanating from the article, and quickly embraced it for its propaganda purposes....Poisonous anti-Semitism was no stranger to Syria's political philosophy."