Initial reviews by the military of some incidents have found "reasonable suspicion" that the attack "deviated from the rules which bind IDF forces," the Jerusalem Post reported.
One such case is an IDF air strike on the residence of the Abu Jama family on July 20 which killed 27 Palestinians. The AP reports that 18 children aged between six months and nine years were killed in the strike, the reported target of which was a local Hamas military commander.
The killing of an ambulance driver on July 25 was also reported by the Post to warrant investigation for the same reason. A third incident, the killing of another ambulance driver, is also to be the subject of a criminal investigation, since the initial "factual findings collected did not provide a sufficient response to the allegations arising from operational reports and from allegations from human rights groups," the Post continued.
The AP reports that Israeli human rights groups have demanded an independent investigation into the war. Sarit Michaeli from Israeli rights group B'Tselem told the agency that military investigations "cannot deal with the issue," as Palestinian casualties were caused by policy decisions "that were made by high-ranking military commanders and by the political echelon."
According to the WSJ, the probes are part of attempts by Israeli authorities to deflect international allegations of war crimes which could follow from the United Nations International Criminal Court, as Palestinian officials continue to push for a UN investigation into alleged Israeli war misconduct.
