Israel closes 88% of cases of alleged war crimes or abuse without charges – report

Nearly nine out of 10 Israeli military investigations into allegations of war crimes or abuses by its soldiers since the start of the war in Gaza have been closed without finding fault or left without resolution, according to a conflict monitor.

Unresolved investigations include the killing of at least 112 Palestinians queueing for flour in Gaza City in February 2024, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said, and an airstrike that killed 45 in an inferno at a tented camp in Rafah in May 2024.

Also unresolved is an inquiry into the killing of 31 Palestinians going to pick up food at a distribution point in Rafah on 1 June.

They were killed after Israeli forces opened fire, witnesses said. Shortly after, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the reports were “false” but the IDF told the Guardian that the incident was “still under review”.

Iain Overton and Lucas Tsantzouris, the team at AOAV, said the statistics suggested Israel was seeking to create a “pattern of impunity” by failing to conclude or find no fault in the vast majority of cases involving “the most severe or public accusations of wrongdoing by their forces”.

The IDF said it “conducts examination and investigation processes regarding exceptional incidents that occurred during operational activity, in which there is a suspicion of a violation of the law” in accordance with its obligations under Israeli and international law.

It operates internal systems to conduct examinations and allegations of war crimes, including criminal investigations by the military advocate general’s police department and fact-finding assessments (FFA) by a separate team in the general staff.

The relatively short passage of time, in investigatory and legal terms, means other unresolved cases may also result in prosecutions, though the two researchers said IDF inquiries had become “more opaque and slow-moving” as the number of civilian casualties in Gaza has mounted.

AOAV said it had found reports of 52 cases in English-language media where the Israeli military said it had conducted or would conduct an investigation after allegations of civilian harm or wrongdoing by its forces in Gaza or the West Bank between October 2023 and the end of June 2025. They involve the deaths of 1,303 Palestinians and the wounding of 1,880.

One case resulted in a prison sentence for an Israeli soldier. An IDF reservist received a seven-month jail term in February after he was convicted by a military court of the aggravated abuse of Palestinian security detainees. He had repeatedly attacked bound and blindfolded prisoners with his fists, a baton and his assault rifle at the Sde Teiman detention centre.

Five other cases ended with violations found. In one, an IDF colonel and a major were sacked in April 2024 and three other commanders reprimanded a few days after seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen were killed in an airstrike. The IDF said it was a “grave mistake stemming from a serious failure due to a mistaken identification”, though the charity said the rapid investigation lacked credibility.

The remaining 46 cases, representing 88% of the total, seven were closed without any finding of fault, AOAV said. A further 39 remain under review or with no outcome reported, including four deadly incidents over the course of last month when Palestinians were killed near or at various food distribution points on the Gaza Strip.

According to the IDF: “Any report … complaint or allegation that suggests misconduct by IDF forces undergoes an initial examination process, irrespective of its source.” In some instances the evidence is such that a criminal investigation by military police is ordered, while in others an initial investigation takes place.

These are referred to the IDF general staff’s FFA mechanism to determine “whether there is a reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct”. Critics of the system, such as the Yesh Din human rights group, say FFA investigations can take years and have led to one known prosecution after 664 inquiries relating to previous IDF military operations in Gaza, in 2014, 2018-19 and 2021.

In August 2024, the IDF said the FFA had collected information on “hundreds of incidents” relating to the war in Gaza alone, while the military advocate general’s office had launched 74 criminal investigations.

Of these, 52 related to the deaths and mistreatment of detainees and 13 to the stealing of enemy ammunition, while a minority related to allegations of war crimes in combat situations. Three related to the “destruction of civilian property without military necessity” and six concerning “alleged illegal use of force”.

The IDF statistics differ from the investigations tracked by AOAV because the research group used a different methodology. AOAV reviewed episodes where there were reports of an investigation being or having been conducted and also took in incidents on the West Bank as well as Gaza.

The IDF said that “dozens of military police investigations have been opened” and that “most of these investigations are still ongoing”. The FFA mechanism, meanwhile, had “completed its review in dozens of cases” and these had transferred to the military advocate general for possible criminal investigation.