High Court Justices Asher Grunis, Elyakim Rubenstein and Dorit Beinisch held a hearing Thursday on a complaint filed by various activist groups against the Cast Lead operation. The justices rejected many of the plaintiffs' claims, saying civilian casualties in Gaza are not proof that the IDF targets civilians.
The plaintiffs accused the IDF of targeting the water and electric systems in Gaza, of firing on ambulances and of forbidding the treatment of Arabs wounded in battle. A representative of the Gisha organization also accused the IDF of firing on United Nations buildings.
Justice Grunis told the groups that such incidents were to be expected. “If our troops can accidentally fire on our troops, it means mistakes can happen in war,” he said, referring to recent incidents in which IDF soldiers were killed or wounded by their fellow troops in the heat of battle.
Rubenstein pointed out that armed terrorists sometimes fight from within ambulances or UN buildings. “The state of Israel and the IDF would have to be crazy to intentionally fire on ambulances or medical crews. The fire was apparently an accident, or they took place when the IDF saw armed men in the ambulances or the international buildings,” he said.
Beinisch joined her colleagues, saying, “The situation is complicated.” Conditions do not always allow Israel to transfer fuel or provide other aid, she said.
State attorneys argued that Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 had changed matters. “There's no doubt that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is not simple, and the civilian population is suffering, but the situation is complicated because unlike in the past, we're outside of Gaza and we don't control it,” one explained.
IDF soldiers may have fired on buildings used by the UN and the Red Cross, they added, but only after coming under terrorist fire from those locations.
Beinisch, Rubenstein and Grunis ordered the state to file an official reply to the rights groups' specific complaints within four days.