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Retired Generals to ICC: Prosecutor Has No Evidence for Allegations Against Israel
(Times of Israel) Jeremy Sharon - The High Level Military Group (HLMG), an international group of retired generals and senior military officers, filed an amicus brief with the International Criminal Court last week stating that ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan's claims that Israel deliberately starved Palestinians and intentionally targeted civilians during the current war in Gaza lack evidence and do not stand up to scrutiny. The group argued that arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were unjustified owing to Israeli efforts to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza and the IDF's rigorous efforts to avoid civilian casualties. The signatories to HLMG's brief included the former head of the Italian armed forces, General Vincenzo Camporini; retired Lt.-Gen. David Deptula of the U.S. Air Force; UK Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp; and other generals and senior officers from the British and French armies. They said, "Should the court approve the requested arrest warrants, it is our professional military opinion that this would set standards that are unbearable and unrealistic with regards to military operations and the facilitation of humanitarian activities during active hostilities, and standards which would be unacceptable for other democracies and their armed forces (including our own) that engage in urban warfare." "The resources dedicated by the IDF to these [humanitarian aid] efforts, the directives and commands we saw, and the commanders we met all suggest that there is a genuine, ongoing and concerted effort to alleviate the humanitarian situation in Gaza, in direct contradiction to the claims of the Prosecutor." Food insecurity in Gaza was due to the "unavoidable effects of large-scale urban warfare," as well as Hamas's role in hijacking aid consignments.