A Palestinian in Gaza searches the rubble of a destroyed house. (Maan Images)

The Israeli army's Advocate General has summarily closed an internal investigation into allegations stemming from accounts by soldiers of abuses against Palestinian civilians committed during Israel's recent war on Hamas in Gaza.

It took the military investigators just half the duration of the 22-day war in Gaza to bulldoze the accounts and to dismiss completely the serious allegations made by soldiers who had themselves taken part in the fighting.

In a public statement Monday, Brigadier-General Avihai Mendelblit said the military police investigation revealed the testimonies "were based on hearsay and not on first-hand experience." The accusations were made last month by soldiers at a military cadet academy which they had attended before being drafted, and were leaked to the press some two weeks ago.

The army probe concludes that the soldiers' accounts were "purposely exaggerated." It was "unfortunate", the statement said, that the soldiers had been careless about accuracy: "It is difficult to evaluate the damage done to the image and morals of the armed forces, both within Israel and the world."

Several Israeli Human Rights organisations denounced the "speedy closing of the investigation" which, they say, "immediately raises suspicion that the investigation was the army's attempt to wipe its hands of all blame for illegal activity during the operation." The groups, including Physicians for Human Rights, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, B'Tselem, and Yesh Din, say "the closing of the investigation strengthens the need for an independent, non-partisan, investigative body to look into all activity of the Israeli army during the operation."

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The testimonies had included the description by an infantry squad leader of an incident where the company commander ordered the shooting of an elderly Palestinian woman; she was killed, he reported, when she was walking on a road 100 metres from a house where the company was posted. The investigators said the soldier had not himself witnessed the event and "was only repeating a rumour he'd heard." They noted, on the other hand, that a woman who approached troops and was suspected of being a suicide bomber had been repeatedly fired upon to try to stop her advancing towards them.

A different squad leader from the same brigade had reported another incident where an army sniper shot and killed a Palestinian mother and her two children whom troops had told to leave their home. According to the soldier's account, the family misunderstood the instructions about which way to walk. The army report concludes: "It was found that during this incident a force had opened fire in a different direction towards two suspicious men who were unrelated to the civilians in question."

To read the full article please visit Inter Press Service.