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Israel vows to back soldiers charged with war crimes

Palestinian official downplays claims

A Hamas police officer directs traffic past the bombed-out Palestinian parliament building in Gaza on Sunday. Gaza remained jittery, a week after a truce ended Israel’s offensive, and an Israeli Cabinet minister added to the tension by threatening attacks against Hamas leaders until an Israeli soldier held more than two years is freed. Associated Press photos (Associated Press photos / The Spokesman-Review)
A Hamas police officer directs traffic past the bombed-out Palestinian parliament building in Gaza on Sunday. Gaza remained jittery, a week after a truce ended Israel’s offensive, and an Israeli Cabinet minister added to the tension by threatening attacks against Hamas leaders until an Israeli soldier held more than two years is freed. Associated Press photos (Associated Press photos / The Spokesman-Review)
By JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press

JERUSALEM – Special legal teams will defend Israeli soldiers against potential war crimes charges stemming from civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip, the prime minister said Sunday, promising the country would fully back those who fought in the three-week offensive.

The move reflected growing concerns by Israel that officers could be subject to international prosecution, despite the army’s claims that Hamas militants caused the civilian casualties by staging attacks from residential areas.

“The state of Israel will fully back those who acted on its behalf,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said. “The soldiers and commanders who were sent on missions in Gaza must know that they are safe from various tribunals.”

Speaking at the weekly Cabinet meeting, Olmert said Israel’s justice minister would lead a team of senior officials to coordinate the legal defense of anyone involved in the offensive.

“That decision is not going to prevent all these organizations and countries to pursue their efforts through legal means,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said at talks with European Union foreign ministers in Brussels. “So there is no immunity even if the decision was taken by the Israeli government.”

Malki is a member of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ government, whose authority extends only to the West Bank after rival Hamas violently took over Gaza in 2007.

Israel launched its 22-day offensive to try to halt Hamas rocket fire on southern Israel. The assault killed 1,285 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights counted. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were also killed.

At talks Sunday in Cairo aimed at solidifying the truce, Hamas official Ayman Taha said the Islamic group offered a one-year truce to Israel, including the reopening of border crossings to allow vital supplies into Gaza. He said Israel offered an 18-month truce, which Hamas rejected. Israeli officials refused to comment.

A low-level delegation from Abbas’ West Bank government was also in Cairo for talks, but was not expected to meet with Hamas.

The European Union, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey appealed to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to form a unity government.

Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies and do not talk to each other, relying instead on Egyptian mediation.

Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights groups have said they are seeking to build a case that Israel violated the laws of war. The groups are focusing on suspicions that Israel used disproportionate force and failed to protect civilians. They also have criticized Hamas for using civilians as human shields and firing rockets at civilian targets in Israel.

Israeli officials have said they took great efforts to avoid civilian casualties, and accused Hamas of deliberately using mosques, schools and residential neighborhoods for cover. Olmert angrily accused the “international legal arena” of “moral acrobatics” by ignoring years of Palestinian rocket salvos aimed at Israeli civilians.

“The state of Israel did everything in order to avoid hitting civilians. I do not know of any military that is more moral, fair and sensitive to civilians’ lives,” Olmert said.

In Brussels, EU foreign ministers on Sunday emphasized the need to stop arms smuggling and improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. They called on Egypt to do more to halt the flow of arms to Gaza, while offering monitors to help run the Egypt-Gaza crossing.

Israeli officials have said they are prepared to resume the offensive if rocket attacks start up again. Israel also has demanded the release of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas for more than two years as part of a long-term truce.

Israeli Cabinet minister Shaul Mofaz suggested that Israel would assassinate Hamas leaders if the soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, is not released.

“I want to tell the leaders of Hamas, don’t misunderstand us,” Mofaz said. “Until Schalit goes free, none of you will be able to walk freely on the streets of Gaza.” It was not clear whether Mofaz, a former armed forces chief, was voicing official policy or giving his personal opinion.

After the comments, Palestinians fled from a dozen government buildings. Hamas officials called for calm, and midlevel officials were back on the job, distributing aid to victims whose homes were destroyed or damaged.