Israel expresses regret over ‘unintentional damage’ to civilians in airstrike in Gaza

Israel’s military said Thursday it had caused “unintentional damage” to “uninvolved civilians” during two attacks this week on a densely populated neighborhood in the Gaza Strip, where local health authorities said dozens of people were killed.

It was a rare admission of guilt by the military over the course of the war. The army said it was targeting Hamas on Sunday when it launched two attacks on the central Gazan community of Al Maghazi, which is awash with Palestinians uprooted by the war and trapped in their homes by the dozens.

“A preliminary investigation revealed that additional buildings near the targets were also struck during the strikes, likely causing unintentional damage to additional uninvolved civilians,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

“The IDF regrets the harm to uninvolved individuals and is working to learn lessons from the incident,” the statement said.

Israel has come under increasing international pressure to scale back its heavy air and ground campaign in Gaza, where more than 20,000 people are said to have been killed, following a Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7.

Much of the criticism focused not only on the scale of the bombing, but also on the weapons used, including US-supplied 2,000-pound bombs that many military experts say are unsuitable for densely populated areas. After the strike in Al Maghazi, photos showed a gray concrete building with gaping dark holes where rooms used to be, and a pile of rubble where men appeared to be digging for survivors or bodies.

An unidentified military official told Kan News, Israel’s public broadcaster, that an inappropriate choice of weapons was responsible for the extensive damage and high number of civilian casualties, adding that the type of ammunition used did not match the nature of the attack.

The military’s statement on Al Maghazi came as excerpts from a leaked draft of an Israeli Supreme Court ruling on legislation passed by the initial coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies to curb the power of Israel’s judiciary to hold. some of his opponents.

An Israeli broadcaster, Channel 12, reported Wednesday evening that in a draft decision, a one-vote majority of judges favored striking down an amendment to a basic law that would prevent judges from overturning government decisions and appointments on the grounds that these are illegal. unreasonable, part of a broader legal overhaul that divided the country.

The New York Times did not obtain a copy of the document and Channel 12 did not publish it in full.

On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Israeli courts said that “the writing of the ruling has not yet been completed.” The court was expected to rule in mid-January, the legal deadline for two retiring judges to submit their decisions.

In the months before the war, Netanyahu’s push to reduce the authority of the judiciary brought the country to the brink of political paralysis. Now the prospect that the court could strike down a law that directly limits its own authority has revived the specter of a constitutional crisis in a country embroiled in the biggest war in decades.

The reemergence of the judiciary issue also threatens to erode the striking unity that has characterized the usually divided country since Hamas-led Gaza Strip forces invaded southern Israel on October 7, killing an estimated 1,200 people died and the country collapsed. at war.

Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who is widely seen as a key architect of judicial reform, on Thursday cited the campaign against Hamas as an additional reason for the court to stay out of the battle for the judiciary. The Israeli public, he argued, should not be “torn by disputes” at a time when soldiers “are fighting side by side on the various fronts, and while the entire nation mourns the loss of many lives.”

In pushing for a judicial review, Mr. Netanyahu and his allies said they were working to curb what they described as the court’s ability to override the will of the majority. Critics said they undermined the separation of powers.

Israelis opposed to the changes – including many reserve soldiers in the armed forces – at times brought Israel to a near standstill before the Hamas attack.

The critics also included two prominent Israelis now in the war cabinet: Benny Gantz, a longtime rival of Netanyahu; and Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant, who warned that the political crisis emboldened Israel’s enemies. Mr Netanyahu had tried to fire Mr Gallant after calling for a pause in implementing the overhaul, but the decision was reversed amid mass protests.

Mr. Gantz’s cooperation with Mr. Netanyahu and his allies has been weak from the start, marked by division and distrust, political analysts say, and may not survive an additional crisis.

The renewed political unrest in Israel came as the country pursued its goal of destroying Hamas in Gaza. But as in Al Maghazi, civilians paid a heavy price.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, Israeli airstrikes killed more than 40 people near a hospital the association operates in southern Gaza, one of the last functioning medical facilities in the enclave. Most of the dead around Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis were displaced people seeking shelter, said Nebal Farsakh, a spokeswoman for the organization.

Also on Thursday, the Israeli military released a summary of its investigation into the accidentally killing of three Israeli hostages in Gaza on December 15. The deaths shocked the Israeli public and raised broader questions about how the Israeli forces have conducted themselves in Gaza.

The summary offered harrowing new details about the killings. When the last of the three hostages shouted “Help” in Hebrew, the battalion commander called for him to come forward and ordered his troops to hold fire.

“Two soldiers, who did not hear the command due to the noise of a nearby tank, shot and killed the third hostage,” the army said.

While about 130 hostages seized on October 7 are still being held in Gaza, the army says it is distributing the photos of the remaining hostages among troops in an effort to prevent similar mistakes in the future.

Israelis also learned Thursday that a woman believed to be held hostage in Gaza had actually been killed in the first Hamas attack. The woman, Judih Weinstein Haggai, 70, died on Oct. 7, her family and Kibbutz Nir Oz said in statements Thursday. Ms Haggai’s husband, Gadi Haggai, had also been listed as a hostage, but it was announced last week that he too was killed that day.

Patrick Kingsley, Anushka Patil And Raja Abdulrahim reporting contributed.