Israeli Officers Under Investigation

There seems to be a constant perp walk of Israeli soldiers since the war in Gaza two years ago. This week the hand of justice has turned to investigate several senior Israeli officers who allegedly authorized an airstrike that killed at least 21 Palestinians in Gaza in 2009.

The Israeli army is being criticized for demolishing a family’s three-story property in order to take it over as a military position. This follows several other accounts of Israeli soldiers and officers acting inappropriately, such as the case of two soldiers who used a Palestinian boy to test out booby traps. —JCL

The Guardian:

Senior Israeli army officers are under investigation by military police over the authorisation of an air strike that killed at least 21 members of one family during the three-week Gaza war in 2008-9.

The officers are reported to include the commander of the Givati Brigade, Colonel Ilan Malka. No decision has been made on whether they will be charged.

The air strike took place on 5 January 2009, nine days after the war began. The extended Samouni family were ordered to gather in one house after a three-storey property belonging to them was taken over as a military position.

Read more

AP / Hatem Moussa

A man watches smoke rise from the United Nations compound in Gaza City after it was hit by Israeli shells in January 2009. Israeli officers are under investigation for another airstrike that demolished a three-story house and killed 21 Palestinians.