Possible war-crime charge against IDF officer

Maj. Gen. Danny Efroni, IDF

The Jerusalem Post reports here on remarks by the Military Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Danny Efroni, suggesting that charges would be pressed against an IDF lieutenant colonel. The matter concerns an incident during the 2014 fighting in Gaza in which a pharmacy was shelled in retaliation for an earlier incident in which an officer was killed by fire from the pharmacy. Excerpt:

The IDF officer [under investigation] has claimed that his speech about honoring Levitas was not the reason for firing on the pharmacy, which he said was a military target following its use by Gaza fighters, but had merely been intended to boost troop morale. 

Until [Lt. Col. Neria] Yeshurun is indicted, there is still a chance that he may only get a disciplinary rebuke for speaking out of turn, but after Efroni’s comments exclamatory remark of “this is not our way” it appears highly unlikely that Yeshurun will get off with less than a disciplinary rebuke and Efroni’s clear implication was even more grave – that he will be indicted like the theft-defendants. 

If Yeshurun is indicted, he would be the first high level IDF commander to be indicted involving a war crimes allegation from the 2014 Gaza war.