Mon, 02 Mar 2009 08:31:32 GMT | PressTV
 Gazan children playing in the ruins of buildings, reduced to rubble by Israel's 23-day war. |
Iran adds the final touches to a criminal case against top Israeli officials, bringing Tel Aviv's war crimes in Gaza further to the fore.
While evidence is stacking up that the Israeli military committed war crimes during the three week-long war on the Gaza Strip, Iran's Chief Prosecutor Qorban-Ali Dori-Najafabadi, sought criminal charges against twenty-nine Israeli political and military leaders on Sunday.
“The charges brought against Israeli officials include undue aggression, disproportionate use of military force, threatening world peace and security, crimes against humanity, genocide, and blatant violations of human rights and international law,” said Dori-Najafabadi. Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Mossad Chief Meir Dagan, Chief of the General Staff of the IDF Gabi Ashkenazi, and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz are reportedly among those facing the court case.
The case will go to trial in Tehran in near future. Tel Aviv launched Operation Cast Lead on December 27 with the declared goal of “self-defense” and toppling the Hamas government. More than 1,300 Palestinians, including a large number of women and children, were killed in the conflagration.
With nearly two months after Tel Aviv declared an alleged ceasefire, further revelations of the Israeli army's massive violations of human rights has set the wheels turning on an international war crime case. During the offensive, Israel reportedly shelled three clearly GPS-designated UN schools and opened fire on hospitals, ambulances, medical personnel, and civilian homes.
UN human rights investigations have exposed that the Israeli army deliberately used white phosphorus ---which is prohibited "in all circumstances" under Protocol III of the Convention on Conventional Weapons ---on Palestinian civilians.
The most shocking eye-opener, however, came on January 4 when Israeli troops evacuated some 110 Gazans --- half of which were children --- into a single-residence house in the Zeitoun neighborhood and warned them to stay indoors. Twenty-four hours later, the soldiers shelled the home incessantly, killing more than 30 of the people inside the house. UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, recently declared that most
Israeli actions against the shell-shocked population of Gaza "appear to have all the elements of war crimes".
Tel Aviv has not ratified the 1998 Rome Statute, therefore Israeli leaders cannot be brought before the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Signatories to the Geneva Convention, however, can prosecute those involved in the 23-day assault on Gaza as culpable for war crimes.
While evidence is stacking up that the Israeli military committed war crimes during the three week-long war on the Gaza Strip, Iran's Chief Prosecutor Qorban-Ali Dori-Najafabadi, sought criminal charges against twenty-nine Israeli political and military leaders on Sunday.
“The charges brought against Israeli officials include undue aggression, disproportionate use of military force, threatening world peace and security, crimes against humanity, genocide, and blatant violations of human rights and international law,” said Dori-Najafabadi. Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Mossad Chief Meir Dagan, Chief of the General Staff of the IDF Gabi Ashkenazi, and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz are reportedly among those facing the court case.
The case will go to trial in Tehran in near future. Tel Aviv launched Operation Cast Lead on December 27 with the declared goal of “self-defense” and toppling the Hamas government. More than 1,300 Palestinians, including a large number of women and children, were killed in the conflagration.
With nearly two months after Tel Aviv declared an alleged ceasefire, further revelations of the Israeli army's massive violations of human rights has set the wheels turning on an international war crime case. During the offensive, Israel reportedly shelled three clearly GPS-designated UN schools and opened fire on hospitals, ambulances, medical personnel, and civilian homes.
UN human rights investigations have exposed that the Israeli army deliberately used white phosphorus ---which is prohibited "in all circumstances" under Protocol III of the Convention on Conventional Weapons ---on Palestinian civilians.
The most shocking eye-opener, however, came on January 4 when Israeli troops evacuated some 110 Gazans --- half of which were children --- into a single-residence house in the Zeitoun neighborhood and warned them to stay indoors. Twenty-four hours later, the soldiers shelled the home incessantly, killing more than 30 of the people inside the house. UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, recently declared that most
Israeli actions against the shell-shocked population of Gaza "appear to have all the elements of war crimes".
Tel Aviv has not ratified the 1998 Rome Statute, therefore Israeli leaders cannot be brought before the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Signatories to the Geneva Convention, however, can prosecute those involved in the 23-day assault on Gaza as culpable for war crimes.
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