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S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 TEL AVIV 000417 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/23/2020 
TAGS: PREL PGOV KWBG PTER IS
SUBJECT: IDF MAG MANDELBLIT ON IDF INVESTIGATIONS INTO 
OPERATION CAST LEAD 
 
REF: A. 09 TEL AVIV 02342 
     ¶B. 09 TEL AVIV 2283 
     ¶C. TEL AVIV 182 
     ¶D. TEL AVIV 183 
     ¶E. TEL AVIV 184 
 
Classified By: Ambassador James B. Cunningham for reasons 1.4 (b),(d). 
 
 ¶1.  (S) Summary: IDF Military Advocate General Mandelblit 
updated the Ambassador on February 17 on the progress of 
investigations into allegations of misconduct during 
Operation Cast Lead, including providing a preview of 
additional findings to be published before the March 24 Human 
Rights Council meeting. Mandelblit noted concern with the 
Palestinian Authority's effort to undermine Israel through 
the International Criminal Court and hoped the U.S. would 
weigh in with both the PA and the ICC, and publicly state our 
view of the ICC's lack of jurisdiction. He warned that PA 
pursuit of Israel through the ICC would be viewed as war by 
the GOI. No decision had been made regarding an independent 
commission to review the IDF investigations. Mandelblit noted 
what he viewed as the lack of political and popular will to 
initiate such an inquiry at this time, and suggested that 
given differences of opinion within the government, the 
question would be held in abeyance as his investigation 
progressed. End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Military Advocate General Avichai Mandelblit met 
with the Ambassador on February 17 to update him on the 
progress of IDF investigations into allegations surrounding 
Operation Cast Lead. IDF Head of the International Law 
Department Col. Liron Libman, along with Gil Limon from the 
same department, and Maj. Noa Meir from the IDF J-5's North 
America Desk also attended the meeting, as did DATT and 
PolOff. 
 
¶3. (C) Mandelblit said several delegations at the UN had 
responded favorably to Israel's presentation of its report 
"Gaza Operation Investigations: An Update," including the 
British, French, and Russian delegations. He noted that the 
French, who hold the UNSC presidency this month, suggested 
that the Goldstone Report would eventually go away as Israel 
released such reports on its investigations. Libman also 
noted positive meetings with delegations from the Netherlands 
and Italy, and with the UN Secretariat. Mandelblit assessed 
that Israel fully met the UN resolution criteria of carrying 
out independent and credible investigations that conformed to 
international standards, and said he did not think it would 
go to the UNSC or even towards an assessment by the UNSYG. He 
also noted that the Palestinian Authority's report only dealt 
with the West Bank, rather than Gaza, and that any UN report 
would highlight the contrast between Israel's and the PA's 
thoroughness of responses. 
 
Help with PA and the ICC? 
------------------------- 
 
¶4. (S) Mandelblit asked for U.S. assistance with regard to 
the International Criminal Court following PA Justice 
Minister Ali Kashan's visit to ICC Prosecutor Luis 
Moreno-Ocampo, during which he asked the prosecutor to take 
jurisdiction for investigating alleged Israeli war crimes in 
the occupied territories since 2002. Mandelblit said several 
legal opinions had been delivered to Ocampo noting that the 
ICC had no legal jurisdiction due to the PA's lack of 
statehood, its lack of control over Gaza, and the fact that 
the Oslo Agreement did not grant the PA authority over Israel 
even in Area A. He also noted that the sufficiency of Israeli 
investigations clearly met the ICC's complementarity standard 
even if it somehow decided it had jurisdiction. Mandelblit 
noted that next month the PA would deliver a paper to Ocampo 
on ICC jurisdiction. He commented that Israel's relations 
with the PA had been on a positive track, but described the 
PA,s actions as "war to take us to the ICC" and hoped the 
U.S. would help the PA understand the gravity of its actions. 
The Ambassador affirmed that the U.S. had consistently 
pressed the PA to cease such actions and had received 
assurances before Goldstone that the PA would freeze such 
attempts. 
 
¶5. (S) Mandelblit said the GOI was troubled that the ICC 
issue was not yet off the table and that it appeared to be a 
political decision for Ocampo, with much pressure coming from 
the Arab League for the ICC to deal with Western countries 
rather than "just Africa." Mandelblit also noted the upcoming 
June ICC Review Conference in Kampala and expressed concern 
that the U.S. might consider joining the ICC at some point. 
Libman noted that the ICC was the most dangerous issue for 
Israel and wondered whether the U.S. could simply state 
 
TEL AVIV 00000417  002 OF 003 
 
 
publicly its position that the ICC has no jurisdiction over 
Israel regarding the Gaza operation. 
 
Independent Commission of Inquiry? 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (C) In response to the Ambassador,s direct question, 
Mandelblit said the GOI had not made a decision regarding a 
commission of inquiry to review IDF investigations. However, 
he explained that he had been against the setting of February 
5th as the date for such a decision to be taken, and said the 
decision was still in the air. He explained that the GOI 
intends to issue periodical updates similar to the one just 
published, with the next one coming out in a month. The GOI 
hopes that eventually Goldstone would "vanish." The 
Ambassador responded that would depend on how well Israel 
makes its case. Mandelblit specifically said the issue had 
"not been decided yet," but he added that, in his opinion, 
"nobody thinks we should do it" -- not just in government 
circles, but the Israeli public as well. He also affirmed 
that the Goldstone Report's allegation that policy directives 
broke international law would become clearly unsupportable as 
the investigations clarified the nature of the incidents 
cited to indicate such a policy. 
 
Contents of the Next Update: 
---------------------------- 
 
¶7. (C) Mandelblit said he would have the next update prepared 
within one month, in time for the Human Rights Council 
meeting on March 24 in Geneva. That update would contain five 
to ten more finalized accounts of incidents, bringing the 
total of publicly released cases to 50-70% of all cases. 
Specifically, the next update would include: 
 
- Attacks on Hamas police: the GOI would publish legal 
analysis, some intelligence, and its findings from six 
incidents that involved attacks on Hamas police, showing that 
the police were part of Hamas' military force. 
 
- Saraya prison: the GOI would demonstrate that the military 
command center located in the large complex near the prison 
was a clear military target and that the prison was 
specifically not allowed to be targeted. 
 
- the al-Bader flour mill: more details would be released 
following upcoming meetings with the UN Mine Action Team that 
disposed of one-third of a precision bomb two weeks after 
hostilities ended. Mandelblit's team would also analyze the 
Human Rights Watch video from the mill's owner released only 
on February 7 for the first time, following Israel's 
submission to the UNSYG. Mandelblit said it was certain that 
a 500-pound bomb should make some blast pressure marks on the 
building and that it was definitely not delivered by air as 
it would have created some type of hole in the roof, which 
was not there. He confirmed that the mill was not a military 
target, was 350 meters away from the closest military target, 
and that no bombs had strayed into it from the air. 
Mandelblit believed it was most likely that someone had 
planted a bomb there within the two weeks before UNMAT 
disposed of it. 
 
- The report would also contain findings on the Jaba factory, 
the Hajjaj house, and the Al-Wadiya food factory. 
 
Updates on Five Cases 
--------------------- 
 
¶8. (C) Regarding the five cases A/S Posner raised, Mandelblit 
said the investigations of most were not finalized, but he 
wanted to provide updates: 
 
- Abed Rabbo House - Mandelblit said the investigation into 
the human shielding case was not finished, but the suspicion 
was that IDF actions were "out of line" and legal steps would 
be taken in the next few days, though he was unsure if they 
would result in a court martial or disciplinary action. 
Mandelblit noted that he transferred that investigation from 
a Command investigation, the results of which cannot be taken 
to a military court, to a Military Police criminal 
investigation before the Goldstone Report and that only one 
of the seven MP cases came from the Goldstone Report. He also 
noted there were two stages in the incident, one involving a 
low-ranking officer and the second involving the knowledge of 
a battalion commander. 
 
- Adayan condolence tent - Mandelblit said this investigation 
was finished and would be referred to IDF Chief of General 
Staff Ashkenazi for a possible doctrinal change on the use of 
 
TEL AVIV 00000417  003 OF 003 
 
 
flechettes in urban areas, but that it was not criminal. 
After gathering almost 20 testimonies, Mandelblit said he 
understood the exact situation, which involved preparations 
to launch a rocket from a relatively open area almost a 
kilometer away from the soldiers. The soldiers did not see 
the condolence tent for the Adayan family. The choice of 
weapons was limited as machine guns would not be efficient at 
that distance and tank shells could have gone through houses 
if they missed the group involved in the rocket launch. The 
choice of tank-fired flechettes appeared to be the only 
appropriate choice, but Mandelblit was referring it to 
Ashkenazi along with another case on flechette use (the Azam 
case, which was not in the Goldstone Report) to determine 
whether flechettes were indeed the only option and whether 
they were appropriate for future urban warfare given that the 
only uses of flechettes in the three weeks of fighting 
produced these two problematic cases with civilian 
casualties. (Note: Israeli flechettes are modified versions 
of the U.S.-made M494 APERS-T rounds, provided to Israel in 
the 1970s, that disperse 5,000 small flechette darts over a 
300m long and 94m wide area at a set distance, according to 
Janes. End note.) 
 
- Sawafeary Chicken Farm - Mandelblit said this investigation 
was finished and he was writing it up for the next public 
report. He said Hamas fighters had taken cover in some 
greenhouses and the chicken farm and that soldiers demolished 
the farm on January 10, after first making two holes that 
enabled the chickens to run out. He showed the Ambassador 
aerial photography of the site before and after destruction, 
noting the locations where the soldiers had taken as outposts 
and the necessity of destroying the site to protect 
themselves from the fighters inside. He noted there was a 
tunnel in the farm as well, but that it was not a factor in 
the case since the soldiers were unaware of the tunnel. 
Mandelblit noted that it was the combat commander's decision 
to destroy a facility during combat, but that perhaps there 
should be a distinction made when securing an outpost and 
involve a higher ranking officer in that decision. 
 
- Qadma Mosque - Mandelblit said the facts were known: A UAV 
shot at two Hamas fighters in front of the mosque and 16 
casualties resulted inside the mosque due to an open door 
through which shrapnel entered during a time of prayer. He 
said only one person had been seen entering the door in 40 
minutes prior to the attack and it was a new mosque that did 
not look like a mosque. He also noted it was not on all maps 
and the UAV controller did not know it was a time of prayer. 
Mandelblit said he referred the case to the Chief of General 
Staff for a decision. He added that at least five of the 
casualties were Hamas militants, but that he considered them 
all unintended casualties. 
 
- Sumuni Family - Mandelblit said this case was also finished 
and given to Ashkenazi for a decision. This incident involved 
an RPG attack from one house with return fire on the 
neighboring house. A colonel was involved who was certain he 
was attacking the house that shot the RPGs. Ashkenzi would 
decide if the colonel's actions were reasonable. 
Cunningham