The explosive report published this past Saturday in the Haaretz pinpointed the blame on the Israeli army itself for bombing and killing its own people at the Nova Festival in Re'eem on October 7th. It is a stunning admission that will have substantial repercussions on the current Israel War on Gaza, and more importantly what will happen after it ends.
The truth came out due to Israeli society blaming the national Police, who are tasked with internal security, for not protecting the festival participants. The police essentially responded by saying Hamas had no idea about the festival; rather, it was the Israeli army helicopter's panicked and indiscriminate bombing of the festival that razed innocent Israelis to the ground and charred others--eventually attracting the attention of Palestinian fighters who had been headed in a completely different direction. The report stopped short of saying how many of the 346 festival goers were killed by Israeli fire; but it did say that among the worst atrocities were likely the result of Israeli fire, not Hamas, since Hamas does not have heavy weapons that could have caused it.
This report is damning because it only confirms prior reports by Israeli witnesses in several Kibutzes, who admitted having being fired upon by Israeli tanks, with houses burnt or destroyed with everyone in them. If Israel did it in Re'eem, surely it cannot deny doing it in all the other Kibutzes ...
This report underlines once more Israel's calamitous response to October 7th, possibly pointing to a gross overreaction in terms of firepower used, not only on Palestinians but even on Israeli citizens! Equally dire is that it weakens an already weak justification for the collective punishment of Palestinian civilians, and it does so in several ways:
First, it questions the intent of Hamas to indiscriminately kill civilians in the first place and specifically festival goers in what has been referred to as a "turkey shoot", which in turn was used to justify Israel's current ad hoc retaliation in Gaza to kill innocent civilians. But if Hamas didn't even kill most of the festival goers, what justification does Israel have for its indiscriminate and incessant killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank and at such scale?
Second, Israel initially cited the degree of barbarity, comparing Hamas to the likes of ISIS, by showcasing charred bodies etc. They would later imply that the ensuing hell Israel unleashed on Gaza was a commensurate response, notwithstanding international norms. They used this argument to basically justify, mostly to Western media, their inhumane actions against Palestinian civilians and to circumvent restrictions set by international law. But if this barbarity had actually been self-imposed by Israel's own air force, where does it leave their narrative and it's international legality?
And third, Israel has been trying to show the world its unity over the war, and that all of Israeli society "democratically" stands behind its violent campaign in Gaza. Evidently, protests against the war within Israel as well as the Haaretz report, quoting Israeli Police, paint an opposing picture: There are clear differences of opinion inside of Israel as to the war's objectives, how it's being conducted, and how and when it should end.
But this doesn't even scratch the surface of the massive problem for Israel. If some of the crimes against Israel were perpetrated by Israelis themselves, where does this leave its standing with the international community vis-a-vis the crimes it perpetrated against the Palestinians? Will Israel now be held to account by its own people for its crimes? Will its leaders be persecuted in the UN or through the International Court of Justice for crimes against the humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians ? And can anyone who aided and abetted Israel, like the US, be prosecuted in court for providing Israel with the weapons to conduct its unjustified crimes?
As for Israel's legal argument, how do the latest revelations transform its claim of self-defense when it seems clear now that the worst atrocities may actually have occurred in an Israeli self-attack? Realizing internal Israeli and global Jewish opposition to what is going on, will the self-defense argument be able to stand on solid footing? Meaning, will its current crimes against civilians not dilute its own legal standing, at best making it less of a Western darling and at worst turning it into a militaristic pariah state, dragged through international courts for crimes against humanity, while garnering less and less sympathy from anyone?
Israel is in a bind and so is the international community that has been arming and egging it on. Every day the war extends, and the atrocities in Gaza pile up, will see them digging deeper into a hole of lawlessness. Can this downward spiral be reversed? And more importantly, will the international community be able to retain any international norms, rights, and lawfulness once this storm blows over, if it allows Israel to go unpunished for its crimes against humanity? The answers to these questions might very well determine the course of global geopolitics and foreign relations among peoples for generations to come ...
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