Gaza medic deaths just the latest in Israel’s long history of changing its story over civilian killings

According to analysis conducted by Israeli human rights organisation, Yesh Din, published last year, the mechanism set up by the IDF’s general staff to investigate potential war crimes is designed to avoid responsibility while giving the impression that a process is taking place.

Of that, the organisation says, “542 (81.6%) incidents were closed without a criminal investigation, with “just 41 incidents (6%)” leading to a criminal investigation.

That led Yesh Din to conclude that “the results of Israel’s law enforcement mechanism’s work over the past decade shows that it rarely opens investigations against junior-ranking soldiers and completely refrains from investigating decision makers at the top command levels”.