The Israeli military is launching a first-of-its-kind course on international law for field commanders in a bid to lower the chances that Israel will be accused of war crimes in a future conflict, The Jerusalem Post reported Tuesday.
The Military Advocate-General's Office is behind the initiative, which aims to familiarize officers with international law pertaining to combat operations, particularly those that take place in urban settings, said the report.
Israel has previously been accused of committing war crimes in the course of military operations that targeted militants in heavily-populated areas in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, some of which resulted in high civilian death tolls and damage to infrastructure.
"It is important that commanders know the principles and what makes a civilian building like a mosque become a legitimate target, once it stops functioning as a mosque and becomes a place where rockets are fired from," a senior officer told the Post.
He said he has little hope that the course, which will be mandatory for officers slated for senior command posts, would ultimately curb future allegations of war crimes, as was the case with a report produced by a UN fact-finding mission that probed Operation Cast Lead, the army's three-week foray into Gaza in early 2009 to quell rocket attacks on southern Israel. Some 1,200 Palestinians, many of them civilians caught in the cross-fire, were killed in battles that took place in densely-populated neighborhoods.
According to the Post, the Israeli army has taken additional steps in the past year to double-check the legitimacy of its operations, including the integration of legal officers in front line units, where they are involved in operational planning and assist brigade and division commanders in determining the legality of striking certain enemy targets.
Front Page Features