Israeli report comes days ahead of UNHRC report which is expected to be the basis of any Palestinian war crimes case against Israel before the International Criminal Court.
The Foreign Ministry on Sunday published an inter-ministerial report on last summer\’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza intended to preempt the UN Human Right\’s Council commission report on the Gaza operation that is expected to be released this week.
The government report poses the Gaza war as a defensive war that was launched reluctantly "in response to increasing rocket and mortar fire on Israel from the Gaza Strip during June and early July 2014, and despite Israel\’s continued efforts at de-escalation."
The report then details Israel\’s continued efforts to reach a cease-fire to end fighting, and its eventual decision to send ground forces into Gaza. "On July 17, 2014, as a result of Hamas\’s continued rejection of cease-fire initiatives, ongoing rocket and mortar fire and the execution of attacks in Israeli territory by sea and through cross-border assault tunnels, the Government of Israel authorized the entry of ground forces into a limited area of the Gaza Strip."
The government has been working on the report, and debating the timing of its release, for weeks. It was originally scheduled to be released in March, when the UNHRC report was set to be released, but was postponed after the UN report was postponed since the commission\’s head, William Schabas, was forced to step down after it was revealed that he had worked briefly as a paid consultant for the PLO in 2012.
The UNHRC report is expected to be the basis of any Palestinian war crimes case against Israel before the International Criminal Court. Israel refused to cooperate with the UNHRC probe from the outset, charging that the commission is tantamount to a kangaroo court, whose conclusions were determined before the investigation even began.