Israel Military Releases Report on Closing of “Black Friday” Investigation (August 15, 2018) [1]
On August 15, 2018, the Israeli Military Advocate General (MAG) released a report [3] providing an update on their investigation of the Israeli military “Operation Protective Edge,” launched in 2014 in the Gaza Strip during the seven-week conflict between Israel and Palestine. The report provides the MAG’s findings on fighting in the city of Rafah on August 1, 2014, also known as “Black Friday,” during which Hamas militants ambushed three Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers during a humanitarian ceasefire and Israel responded with attacks that resulted in the death of over 110 Palestinians in one of the deadliest incidents of Operation Protective Edge. The MAG investigated whether the Israeli military response to the ambush was proportional under the international laws of armed conflict and IDF operational directives and “did not find that the actions of the IDF forces that were examined raised grounds for a reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.” The MAG found that Israeli use of firepower “accorded with Israeli domestic law and international law requirements” and “ordered that the case be closed, without opening a criminal investigation.” The report also discusses the MAG’s decision to close fifteen other investigations.