Israeli military ‘failed to protect’ civilians on 7 October; ICC to continue probe into crimes committed in Palestine

The International Criminal Court (ICC) would urgently continue its investigation into crimes committed in Palestinian territories, or by Palestinians, said the prosecutor’s office on Thursday, despite the withdrawal of an arrest warrant for a Hamas leader.

Israel announced on Thursday it was sending negotiators to Cairo for talks, seeking to extend a first phase of a ceasefire due to expire on Saturday, in the apparent aim of securing the release of more hostages while delaying any final deal on Gaza’s future.

Israeli military ‘failed to protect’ civilians on 7 October - inquiry

The Israeli military drastically underestimated the capabilities of Hamas before its attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, and “failed in its mission to protect Israeli civilians”, said a summary of an Israeli military investigation published on Thursday.

The perception that Hamas was not interested in a full-scale conflict and that Israel would have ample warning if that changed went unchallenged for years, said the summary, resulting in a lack of preparedness and ability to respond to an attack.

“The belief was that Hamas could be influenced through pressures that would reduce its motivation for war, primarily by improving living conditions in the Gaza Strip,” said the report.

The investigation looked at Israeli military strategy, battle behaviour and intelligence before, during and after 7 October 2023, when Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 48,000 people have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza since then, according to Palestinian health officials. Much of the enclave has been laid waste and most of the territory’s 2.3 million prewar population have been displaced multiple times, say humanitarian agencies. Around 400 Israeli soldiers have also been killed.

The military investigation was conducted as calls grow from within the Israeli opposition and civil society for a national inquiry into the government’s failures on the deadliest single day in modern Israeli history.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a national inquiry would only be appropriate after the conclusion of the war.

The first phase of a ceasefire that began on 19 January is due to expire on Saturday.

The military investigation found Israel had focused its intelligence and military efforts on other fronts, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, and relied too heavily “on intelligence, barriers, and defensive measures alone”, and was thus caught by surprise.

Military commanders did not perceive an urgent threat leading up to the 7 October attacks and did not reinforce the troops defending the border.

ICC says Palestinian probe continues with urgency

The International Criminal Court (ICC) would urgently continue its investigation into crimes committed in Palestinian territories, or by Palestinians, said the prosecutor’s office on Thursday, despite the withdrawal of an arrest warrant for a Hamas leader.

The ICC said on Wednesday that judges had withdrawn an arrest warrant for Ibrahim al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, following credible reports of his death.

Deif had been wanted for atrocities committed during Hamas’ October 2023 attack on southern Israeli communities that triggered the war in Gaza. He had been accused by prosecutors of mass killing, rape and hostage taking.

He was killed in an Israeli airstrike last year, but Hamas only confirmed his death in late January.

On Thursday, the prosecutor’s office said the probe continued and it would not hesitate to seek arrest warrants for other suspects “if and when it considers that the threshold of a realistic prospect of conviction has been met”.

“Addressing the situation as an urgent priority, the office is conducting an active investigation, and advances multiple and interconnected additional lines of inquiry,” it said in an e-mail.

In November, judges at the ICC also issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defence chief for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza.

The Israeli leader dismissed the decision as anti-Semitic and said the accusations were absurd and false.

The withdrawal of the warrant for Deif means there are now no public ICC arrest warrants for any Palestinian militants connected to the 7 October attacks.

The decision to drop the case against Deif showed that more action was needed “to end impunity for atrocities still being committed by perpetrators from fundamentalist groups”, said lawyer Yael Vias Gvirsman, who represents Israeli victims at the ICC.

Israel sends negotiators to Cairo to extend phase one of ceasefire

Israel announced on Thursday it was sending negotiators to Cairo for talks, seeking to extend a first phase of a ceasefire due to expire on Saturday, in the apparent aim of securing the release of more hostages while delaying any final deal on Gaza’s future.

The announcement came after Hamas handed over four bodies of hostages, the last due to be released under the terms of the six-week first phase of the ceasefire that started on 19 January. Talks have yet to begin on a second phase that would ultimately lead to a permanent end to the war.

Israel Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters in Jerusalem the delegation would travel to Egypt to see whether there was common ground to negotiate an extension to the truce.

“We said we are ready to make the framework longer in return to release more hostages. If it is possible, we’ll do that.”

Two government officials told Reuters that Israel was seeking to extend the initial phase, with Hamas freeing three hostages each week in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel.

The warring sides have not spelled out what would happen beyond Saturday if the first phase of the ceasefire expires with no agreement. Egypt and Qatar are mediating between Israel and Hamas, with the backing of the US.

The initial phase of the ceasefire included the handover of 33 Israeli hostages in return for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails. Fighting was paused and Israeli troops withdrew from some positions in Gaza.

Talks over the second phase, intended to secure the release of the remaining hostages and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, had been meant to start earlier this month.

Israel’s government faces public pressure to stick to the ceasefire to free remaining hostages, while some within the right-wing government want to return to war to fulfil their objective of eradicating Hamas.

Israel said three of the four hostages whose bodies had been handed over overnight had been murdered in captivity, and the fourth had been killed on the day they were captured during the Hamas-led raid that precipitated the war.

The dire condition of hostages handed over in recent weeks, including some who appeared emaciated and others Israel says were murdered by their captors, including a baby, have intensified Israeli public anger, potentially affecting talks to extend the truce.

Hamas said on Thursday it was ready to begin talks on the second phase and that the only way remaining hostages in Gaza would be freed was through commitment to the ceasefire.

Israeli authorities believe fewer than half of the 59 hostages still held in Gaza are still alive.

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen told public broadcaster Kan that Israel demanded that the military stay in the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs the length of Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.

Israeli troops are supposed to start withdrawing from the Gaza-Egypt border area on Saturday, when the first phase of the ceasefire is set to end.

Cohen said Israel was in a stronger position to negotiate now than it was on the eve of the ceasefire because it has full backing from the US administration of President Donald Trump, which this month began shipping heavy bombs.

The final four bodies of hostages in the deal’s first phase were handed over in return for 643 Palestinians either detained by Israeli forces in Gaza or jailed in Israel. The bodies were returned without a public display of the coffins before crowds in Gaza, after such displays angered Israel.

President Isaac Herzog in a post on X confirmed the bodies were those of Tsachi Idan, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi and Shlomo Mantzur, all abducted during the 7 October 2023 attack from their kibbutz homes near Gaza.

“In this painful moment, there is some solace in knowing that they will be laid to rest in dignity in Israel,” he wrote.

Idan, Yahalomi and Elgarat were murdered in captivity in Gaza,  said Netanyahu’s office, while Mantzur was killed on 7 October 2023 during the Hamas attack.

The Palestinians released overnight include 445 men and 24 women and minors detained in Gaza, as well as 151 prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, according to a Hamas source.

One bus transported detainees from Israel’s Ofer prison in the Occupied West Bank to Ramallah where cheering crowds had gathered to greet them.

Bilal Yassin (42) told Reuters he had been in Israeli detention for 20 years.

“Our sacrifices and imprisonment were not in vain,” said Yassin. “We had confidence in the resistance.”

Nearly 100 Palestinian prisoners were handed over to Egypt, where they will stay until another country accepts them, according to a Hamas source and Egyptian media.

Seven injured in ramming attack at Israeli bus stop

A ramming attack at a bus stop in northern Israel on Thursday injured seven people, one of them critically, said Israeli medics.

Israeli police said the suspected attacker had nationalistic motivations and was a Palestinian from Jenin in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank who was married to an Israeli citizen.

“Preliminary findings indicate that he deliberately targeted civilians” waiting at a bus stop at Karkur Junction, said the Israeli police.

Israeli-Palestinian violence has spiked in the West Bank. Israel sent tanks into the northern West Bank for the first time in over 20 years on Sunday and ordered the military to prepare for an extended stay to fight Palestinian militant groups in the area’s refugee camps.

At least 40,000 Palestinians have left their homes in Jenin and nearby Tulkarm since Israel began its operation last month, after reaching a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in Gaza following 15 months of war. DM

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