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IDF Soldier Views International Criminal Court Probe of 2014 Gaza War

(Sputnik-Russia) Omri Ohayon, one of the Israeli soldiers who was fighting in Gaza during 2014 war, an event that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court wants to investigate, said, "You cannot compare the only democracy in the Middle East with a terror organization like Hamas." Ohayon served in the Israel Defense Forces' Yahalom unit, responsible for spotting and eliminating tunnels used by Hamas to infiltrate Israeli territory to kidnap and murder Israelis. In 2014 Ohayon's team found 11 such tunnels. Our goal "was to find and destroy tunnels as well as to protect Israel from militants' infiltrations, not to harass Palestinians or kill civilians. This is not what we were ordered to do by our commanders, and this is not what we did on the ground," he explained. "If the ICC claims to be objective, equal and unbiased, why don't they investigate regimes where human rights are breached, and civilians are massacred, including in Syria, Iran, North Korea or even the Palestinian Authority that knows little about such rights as freedom of speech?" "I can testify that in many cases shelling of civilian buildings was called off simply because we found out that there were civilians inside. At times we were too cautious, and it would cost us our soldiers' lives," he said, recalling an incident when a Hamas militant attacked his squad while hiding behind civilians. Ohayon says his conscience is clear. "I know my commanders, and I know my soldiers. War crimes were not committed. Even more so, we did everything in our power to save human lives and avoid unnecessary casualties."
2019-12-27 00:00:00
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