
Israel's government on Thursday released a 160-page report answering charges by  the Palestinians, the UN and human rights groups that its military incursion  into the Gaza Strip in late December and early January was characterized by war  crimes and other violations of international law.
The report first and  foremost served to remind the international community that Israeli forces only  entered Gaza in what was dubbed "Operation Cast Lead" after weeks of incessant  and escalating Hamas rocket fire on southern Israel. During that period, the  world did little or nothing to rein in Hamas and bring an end to the rocket  attacks.
When Israeli forces did enter, they were determined to not  repeat the mistakes made in southern Lebanon that lead to a large number of  Israeli casualties. Warplanes, artillery and tanks were used liberally to ensure  the safety of Israeli ground forces, and that use of force resulted in 1,100  Palestinians killed, according to Palestinian sources.
But the report  noted that Israel's use of force was by no means disproportionate or  unprecedented. When American and other allied forces recently invaded  Afghanistan and Iraq, they employed far greater force against civilian areas  used as cover by terrorist forces in order to keep their own casualties  low.
Indeed, according to the actual international rules of war as  contained in the Geneva Conventions, civilian areas are not to be exempt from  the use of overwhelming force if they are being used as cover or bases of  operations by enemy combatants.
The report flat-out rejected charges that  Israeli warplanes and artillery engaged in indiscriminate firing at Palestinian  civilian areas or that they intentionally targeted and killed Palestinian  civilians.
The government did say that more than a dozen criminal  inquiries have been opened against individual soldiers or units for abuses  committed during the fighting, but insisted that is by no means an indictment of  the entire IDF or the nation of Israel.