Michael Oren, Israeli deputy minister for public diplomacy and a former ambassador to the U.S., spoke in an interview of events on the Israel-Gaza border, Deutsche Welle in Germany reports.
“There were dozens of attempts to cross the border. And the people who were shot were presenting an imminent danger to our border and every shot taken had to have three clearance orders….We used lethal fire because there was no choice. And, last point: If they had broken through the border, many, many more people would have been killed including a great many more Palestinians….No soldier fires at will. That order did not exist on the Gaza border.”
Meanwhile, in one of the most important decisions it has made about the laws of war and human rights in years, Israel’s High Court of Justice declared Thursday that the IDF’s rules of engagement during the Gaza border crisis were legal. Due to the high esteem in which the High Court is held overseas, the decision will make it more difficult for the International Criminal Court to declare the IDF’s conduct a violation of international law.
{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}
