Israeli army investigations found no evidence soldiers deliberately attacked civilians during the Gaza war at the turn of the year, army chief Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi said on Tuesday as he also charged that Lebanon's resistance Hezbollah group had rockets that could hit Tel Aviv.
"We are not an army of looters and raiders. We found no instances of looting or rape," Ashkenazi was quoted as telling parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee.
"We found no incidents where a soldier deliberately targeted a woman or a child," an official present at the meeting quoted Ashkenazi as saying.
We are not an army of looters and raiders. We found no instances of looting or rape
Ashkenazi's comments came as a rare response to the Goldstone report, the United Nations probe into the war that accused both Israel and Palestinian militants of war crimes.
Ashkenazi said the five military teams of investigators carried out investigations that found that while civilians had been killed, these incidents were accidents that happened in the chaos of war.
"We found we made mistakes and accidently hit civilians, just like we accidently hit our own officers and soldiers," Ashkenazi told the closed-door committee.
The U.N. probe said both Israel and Palestinian groups committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the 22-day war in December-January that Israel launched in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.
Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during Israel's sea, air and land assault.
The 575-page report by a panel led by respected former international prosecutor Richard Goldstone recommended that its findings be transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague if Israel and the Hamas rulers of Gaza fail to conduct credible investigations into the war.
Hezbollah rockets
A false calm currently reigns on Israel's southern and northern borders, where the enemy is preparing for a new confrontation
Meanwhile Ashkenazi also said that Lebanon's Shiite resistance group Hezbollah has rockets capable of reaching major Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv.
Ashkenazi said the Hassan Nasrallah's group had tens of thousands of rockets, including some with a range of more than 300 kilometers (116 miles), public radio reported.
This would put the cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem within range, as well as the Jewish state's secretive and undeclared nuclear reactor at Dimona.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in July-August 2006, which killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
Ashkenazi also warned that militant groups in Lebanon and Gaza were using the current calm on the border to rearm.
"A false calm currently reigns on Israel's southern and northern borders, where the enemy is preparing for a new confrontation," he was quoted as saying.
Ashkenazi's claims come as Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri formed a new unity government that includes two ministers from Hezbollah.
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