The Israeli military said on Monday it had reprimanded two high-ranking officers for approving the firing of artillery shells toward a UN compound during the Gaza Strip war last year — the first admission of any high-level wrongdoing during the offensive.
Israel announced the punishment in a document submitted to the UN on Friday in response to a UN report that has accused Israel’s military of committing war crimes, including the use of white phosphorus, an incendiary munition, in the warehouse attack.
Israel is trying to stave off the report’s central threat of launching war crimes proceedings if it does not carry out an independent investigation into the military’s conduct during the fighting.
There was no immediate comment from UN officials and it remained unclear whether the relatively minor punishments would mollify international concerns that the military is not capable of investigating itself.
The disciplinary action could compromise the officers’ chances for promotion, but carries no other penalties.
“The most important thing that I want to emphasize is we have absolutely nothing to hide,” military spokesman Captain Barak Raz said.
The artillery attack, which took place while more than 700 Palestinian civilians were taking refuge in the compound, set ablaze a warehouse that services more than 1 million Gazans, destroying thousands of kilograms of food and other aid. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was visiting the region at the time and three people were wounded, UN officials said.
Israel has said militants opened fire on Israeli troops from the compound — a charge the UN disputes. Nonetheless, the Israeli report said, a brigadier general and a colonel “exceeded their authority in a manner that jeopardized the lives of others” by authorizing the firing of artillery shells in the area.
Military officials denied a Haaretz newspaper report that the officers were reprimanded for firing white phosphorous shells.
White phosphorus can be used legally in some battlefield situations, but its use in built-up areas of Gaza has drawn war crimes allegations. The UN report has said it was improperly used in the warehouse attack.
The military would not name the reprimanded officers, but Israeli newspapers and radio stations identified them as Gaza division commander Brigadier General Eyal Eisenberg and Colonel Ilan Malka, then-commander of the Givati infantry brigade.
The report, by veteran war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, has accused Israel of using disproportionate force and targeting civilians. It also accused Hamas of firing rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians.
Both sides reject the charges.
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