Israel works to cement cease-fire

Los Angeles Times

JERUSALEM — Israeli leaders worked at home and abroad Wednesday to reinforce a fragile cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and respond to international criticism of civilian casualties inflicted by Israel’s 22-day offensive against Hamas militants who control the Palestinian enclave.

Israel’s foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, met in Brussels, Belgium, with European leaders about preventing arms smuggling into Gaza, and in Tel Aviv, military officials said they were investigating complaints that Israeli forces ignored international restrictions on the use of phosphorous weapons in their attacks in Gaza.

As Israel completed a rapid troop pullout Wednesday morning, the World Health Organization released a report estimating that 1,300 Palestinians were killed during the fighting, including 410 children and 104 women. About 5,300 Palestinians were injured, half of them women and children, the report said.

At least 13 Israelis died, three of them civilians and four of them military personnel killed by “friendly fire.”

In addition to allegations of indiscriminate violence, critics accuse Israel of violating international law restricting the use of phosphorus weapons, which can inflict horrific burns. Phosphorus artillery shells and similar weapons are not illegal, but the law bars their use in densely populated areas such as Gaza City, one of the most crowded urban areas in the world.

An Israeli committee led by a colonel will investigate the allegations by human-rights groups and the foreign press, officials said Wednesday. The Israeli Defense Force established the committee Jan. 16, according to the statement released by the office of the IDF spokesperson.

In another repercussion of foreign condemnation of Israeli tactics, the military made an unprecedented decision Wednesday to conceal the identities of field commanders who had been interviewed by the Israeli media. Military censors decided shortly before the airing and publication of the interviews that names would be withheld and faces would be blurred in television reports, according to the Israeli media.

The decision results from concerns about attempts to pursue war crimes prosecutions against Israeli officials in foreign courts.

Chanting “war criminal,” hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated against Livni’s visit in Brussels. Livni and 27 European counterparts discussed ways in which the European Union can contribute military forces, ships and technology to stop arms smuggling into Gaza by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups. In a plan outlined last week, the United States agreed to provide detection and surveillance equipment, logistical help and training to Israel, Egypt and others to monitor Gaza’s land and sea borders.

Pledging to support the anti-smuggling accord as part of a larger peace effort, U.S. President Barack Obama telephoned Olmert, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan. Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator in the West Bank, said Abbas, who heads the Fatah faction that was ousted from Gaza by Hamas in mid-2007, was reassured by the call from Obama.

“Obama stressed that he and his administration will work in full partnership with President Abbas to achieve peace in the region,” Erekat said.

A Hamas spokesman was less enthusiastic, demanding that Obama review American positions toward Hamas, which the U.S. and Europe have designated as a terrorist group.