As threatened ICC prosecution looms, IDF strives to prove independence of military justice

Also see: Israel lobbies foreign powers to cut ICC funding

Commanders and soldiers from the IDF’s Givati Brigade struck first. The objective was not Rafah, Shejaiya, or Khan Yunis, but determining the line where IDF operational commanders end and IDF lawyers’ authority becomes dominant.

With International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s Friday decision to open a preliminary probe into war crimes allegations from the summer Gaza war and to recognize “Palestine” as a state, every aspect of the internal IDF probe and political debate over how Israeli war crimes investigations should be conducted is being examined under a microscope.

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