Israel says malfunction caused deaths of 21 Palestinians

Calcutta News.Net
Tuesday 26th February, 2008

Israel's Defense Forces Military Advocate ruled on Tuesday there was no need to open a Military Police investigation into the November 2006 incident in which 21 Palestinians were killed from an errant IDF shell in the town of Beit Hanoun in Gaza.

General Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit also said no legal measures would be taken against any party involved in the incident.

Then-Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz ordered an investigative commission of inquiry be established to examine the circumstances surrounding the incident and determine the need for further proceedings.

The special team was led by then-Deputy Ground Forces Commander Maj. Gen. Meir Kalifi and the findings were presented before Mendelblit.

The Israeli army said in response to the ruling that Kalifi's inquiry leaves no doubt that the incident was unintentional and stemmed from a grave and atypical malfunction in the control mechanism of the artillery machinery being used at the time. The malfunction fed incorrect data into the system used to calculate the trajectory of the shells.

Upon investigation the malfunction was determined to be extremely rare and unfamiliar even to the expert artillery technicians trained to deal with that specific system. Therefore, the military advocacy determined, there was nothing to link any possible human error to the outcome of the incident.

Mendleblit ruled that the conduct of those involved in the event was not negligent.

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