An Israeli soldier faces a manslaughter charge in the death of a Palestinian waving a white flag during a three-week incursion into Gaza, the Israeli military said Tuesday.
The criminal indictment is one of a few disciplinary actions being taken by the Israeli Defense Forces for conduct in the Gaza incursion, including the use of a Palestinian man as a "human shield," the military said in a news release.
In that incident, a battalion commander authorized sending a Palestinian man into a house sheltering terrorists in order to persuade them to leave the house, the IDF news release said. The commander was indicted "because he deviated from authorized and appropriate IDF behavior" and ignored rules on the use of civilians in military operations, it said.
Israeli investigators looked into more than 150 incidents during Operation Cast Lead undertaken by Israel in late 2008 in response to an escalation of Palestinian rocket attacks, and conducted 50 probes, the IDF said.
Tuesday's news release also said a criminal investigation has been ordered into an incident in which a residence with about 100 people inside was struck from the air, and an officer had been disciplined for failing to exercise appropriate judgment in ordering an attack close to a mosque.
But the Palestinians say Israel's actions are unsatisfactory.
"I think Israel should take all responsibility for all the war crimes that it is responsible for during its unjustified war in Gaza, and what they just announced is too little too late," Palestinian spokesman Ghassan Khatib told CNN.
The shooting incident involving the white flag appeared to be the same one reported earlier in the Goldstone human rights report on the Gaza incursion, in which two women allegedly were shot dead by Israeli soldiers on January 4, 2009, the IDF said.
But conflict between the testimonies of Palestinian witnesses and military personnel made it "impossible to make a criminal connection" between the incidents described by the two sides, the news release said. The chief military prosecutor decided on the manslaughter charge, it said, because there was evidence that the sergeant "deliberately targeted an individual walking with a group of people waving a white flag without being ordered or authorized to do so."
Earlier this year, the Israeli military disciplined two officers -- a brigadier general and a colonel -- for allowing artillery shells to be fired into a populated area of Gaza.
The IDF news release Tuesday noted that Israel "practiced a policy of restraint for a long period of time" against Palestinian attacks from Gaza and accused the Palestinian movement Hamas of terrorizing the population. It said Operation Cast Lead was conducted in crowded urban centers, which created a complex security situation.
More than 1,400 Palestinians died in Israel's incursion, according to officials in Gaza. The Israeli military said 1,166 people were killed, 60 percent of whom were "terror operatives."
The 575-page Goldstone report -- approved by the U.N. Council for Human Rights in 2009 -- accused both Israel and Hamas of "actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity" during the three-week offensive that ended in January 2009.
The report, known for its author, South African jurist Richard Goldstone, called on both Israel and Hamas to independently investigate the alleged human rights violations cited in the report.
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