Israel’s military has been hit with a barrage of human rights reports this week. One, by the Israeli human rights group Gisha, criticises Israel’s policy of banning Palestinians from leaving the Gaza strip. The Red Cross has also filed a report, “Gaza: 1.5 Million People Trapped in Despair,” as well as a film(Gaza: Paying the Price) criticising Israel’s three-week incursion into Gaza last winter, known as “Operation Cast Lead.”

Meanwhile, former war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone has begun collecting evidence about Operation Cast Lead for the UN Human Rights Council.

This week also saw a report on Gaza filed by Amnesty International as well as one by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which accuses Israel of using drones that killed civilians: “Drone operators can clearly see their targets on the ground and also divert their missiles after launch,” said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report. “Given these capabilities, Israel needs to explain why these civilian deaths took place.”

A recent report by Reuters’ Dan Williams discusses the HRW report, including critiques of the group’s research by some military analysts:

“The value of such forensics was disputed by Robert Hewson, editor of Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons. “Human Rights Watch makes a lot of claims and assumptions about weapons and drones, all of which is still fairly speculative, because we have so little evidence,” Hewson said…Despite his misgivings about the report, Hewson said it pointed to a broader problem of Israeli military doctrine. “What Israel has is total intelligence, surveillance, and reconaissance (over Gaza), which makes it extremely difficult
for them to deny they knew who they were shooting at most of the time.”

Read Dan’s entire article here.

Several columnists in the Israeli media have come to the IDF’s defence. In the Jerusalem Post, Alan Dershowitz’s blog (Called the “Double Standard Watch”) has a new article, “The UN Kangaroo Investigations,” which states that ” The very mandate that authorized the Gaza investigation reveals its bias against Israel. The council has already concluded, without any pretense an investigation, that Israel is guilty of “grave violations of human rights due to its military attacks.” Another article by Edwin Bennatan, “Richard Goldstone’s Phony Inquiry on Gaza” criticizes the recent legal onslaught as well for bias.

Israelis weren’t the only ones upset with some of the recent human rights group reports. In Ha’aretz, Hamas cites complaints with Amnesty International’s findings as well: “The Hamas spokesman added that his organization rejects the findings of the 117-page report, saying that it was unfair to place the victim in the position of aggressor.”

PHOTO: Palestinian man stands near houses destroyed during the three-week offensive Israel launched last December, in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem. July 2, 2009.