Lack of accountability, transparency and judicial oversight

Lack of accountability

Yesh Din monitored the performance of the military’s law enforcement system with respect to three military operations in Gaza over the past decade: Protective Edge (July-August 2014), the response to the Great March of Return (March 2018 until late 2019), and Guardian of the Walls (May 2021). Its analysis leads to the conclusion that the system is not interested in properly investigating suspected war crimes or reviewing policy decisions. Very few investigations were opened against low-ranking soldiers, while none targeted senior commanders or decision-makers. Additionally, investigations conducted by the General Staff Mechanism for Fact-Finding Assessments (FFA Mechanism) are inordinately long, with some taking years. Hundreds of alleged violations of international law were brought to the attention of the military’s law enforcement system during these three operations. Only three resulted in indictments.

There is, therefore, serious concern that most inquiries and investigations related to the current war will focus only on lower-ranking personnel, with most, if not all, ending without prosecution, while policymakers and senior military and civilian leaders will escape scrutiny for the policies they devised. In the absence of a meaningful response from the Israeli system, there is an urgent need for an external, independent investigation into suspected breaches of international law by Israel, both to stop current violations and to prevent future ones.

For the full Yesh Din report, see: The General Staff Whitewashing Mechanism: The Israeli law enforcement system and breaches of international law and war crimes in Gaza

Lack of transparency

Two years after the outbreak of the war, the Military Advocate General’s Corps (MAG Corps) has not published up-to-date information on the number of reports it received regarding harm to civilians, breaches of military regulations, and violations of international law, or on the number of reviews and investigations initiated and their outcomes. Requests for this information submitted under the Freedom of Information Law have gone unanswered. This lack of transparency around the work of the military law enforcement system precludes public examination and oversight of its performance.

Based on the limited data supplied by the MAG Corps, most recently released in August 2024 and not updated for over a year at the time of writing, during the first nine months of the war more than 1,000 incidents were referred to the FFA Mechanism for review. These included suspected harm to humanitarian aid workers and resources; strikes on IDP shelters; damage to critical civilian infrastructure; events resulting in mass civilian casualties; and harm to medical facilities or personnel. During that time, 74 criminal investigations were launched: 44 relating to the deaths of detainees in military custody (as a policy, deaths in custody are automatically investigated), eight for suspected mistreatment of detainees, three for suspected unjustified destruction of civilian property, 13 for suspected looting and theft of weapons, and six for suspected unlawful use of force. Without current data from the military, it is impossible to know if, or how, the law enforcement system is fulfilling its obligation to investigate and prosecute those suspected of war crimes or violations of military law.

Reduced judicial intervention

Throughout 2025, numerous petitions were filed with the Israeli High Court of Justice (HCJ) regarding critical humanitarian issues: halting attacks on hospitals, evacuating patients from the Strip, allowing the entry of humanitarian aid, and protections for detainees and detention conditions. The HCJ consistently avoided granting substantive reforms. In most cases, the proceedings were dismissed outright or dragged on for months, with the justices relying almost entirely on the State’s position. These court cases were turned into protracted bureaucratic ordeals of requests for extensions and technical deliberations, divorced from the broader situation in Gaza and the urgency of these life-and-death requests.

An analysis of these proceedings, including by PHRI (whose full report will be published on the organization’s website at the end of 2025), has found that due to repeated extensions and the absence of effective, even temporary, remedies, including in cases where such action could have saved lives, the unfortunate conclusion is that these proceedings amounted to little more than the appearance of judicial review that provided legitimacy to government policy, military action, and procedures, even at the cost of killing civilians, including children.

For further reading on the lack of judicial scrutiny in legal proceedings during the war, see: Israeli High Court Presents: A Hymn of Praise to Israeli Policy in Gaza Strip