The first incident reported in the IDF update involved a Palestinian by the name of Majdi Abd Rabbo, who according to the Goldstone Report, [5] was held by IDF soldiers for three days without receiving food or water and was forced to endanger his life by entering houses in which fighters of the al-Qassam Brigades were hiding. Abd Rabbo, was ordered, inter alia, to persuade al-Qassam Brigade fighters to come outside under the false pretense that representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross were in the area.
According to the IDF's update report, internal investigations suggest that after Abd Rabbo repeatedly asked IDF soldiers to allow him to enter his home during the operation in order to search for militants and spare it from demolition, an IDF battalion commander approved the request. After reviewing the relevant evidence, however, the MAG decided to subject the battalion commander to disciplinary proceedings, since the use of civilians during military search operations violates the IDF code of conduct and an Israeli Supreme Court ruling.[6] The officer was found guilty and received a warning.
In another incident, which allegedly occurred on 4 January 2009, Israeli troops opened fire on a group of 28 Palestinian civilians (including 17 children) who were trying to evacuate their homes after hearing radio broadcasts of IDF orders to leave the area. The group raised white flags made of white cloth hung on a broomstick. According to the allegations, the shots fired by the IDF soldiers killed two civilians – a woman and her daughter – who were waving a white flag.[7] An investigation was initiated by the IDF; however, after interviewing many Palestinians who witnessed the incident as well as Israeli soldiers, the MAG decided not to bring an indictment over the incident in question. This was because the witness testimonies were too contradictory to substantiate criminal proceedings, and there was no clear connection between the incident described by the Palestinian eye witnesses and relevant incidents referred to by the Israeli soldiers.
The testimonies collected from IDF soldiers and Palestinians as part of the investigation of the aforementioned incident, however, revealed another incident that occurred the following day, in which an Israeli soldier fired shots towards a group of Palestinians holding a white flag and killed one of them. After reviewing all the relevant evidence, the MAG ordered to file an indictment against the soldier on account that he fired deliberately and without authorization and caused the death of a civilian.
The IDF's update also described the MAG's decision to initiate a criminal investigation following a special command investigation regarding an attack on the house of the al-Samouni family house in the Zeitoun neighborhood on 5 January 2009.[8]
The last incident described in the IDF's update is an alleged attack on the al-Maqadmah mosque on 3 January 2009.[9] This incident was one of the incidents that served as the subject of five special command investigations conducted by senior IDF officers.[10] While the special command investigation of this incident initially did not find any evidence that the mosque was attacked, after reviewing additional evidence published in reports by NGOs, the Chief of General Staff ordered that the investigation be renewed. According to the IDF update, the investigation led to the conclusion that IDF forces attacked two Palestinian terrorists who were involved in firing rockets against Israel from an area outside the al-Maqadmah mosque. The mosque and the people inside it were harmed as collateral damaged from IDF missile fragments.
The special command investigation suggested that the discretion of the Israeli officers who ordered the missile attack on the Kassam operatives near the mosque was faulty. The officers were subsequently subjected to disciplinary proceedings, were found guilty of negligence, and were temporarily suspended from operational activity. The MAG inspected the evidence relating to the incident and the disciplinary proceedings and concluded that the attack was directed against a legitimate target – two terrorists – and not against the mosque. Moreover, collateral damage to civilians was not foreseen by the officers in the field, and was objectively a low likelihood event. Hence, there was no violation of basic IHL norms, and no legal action other than the disciplinary proceedings that had already taken place was required.