25/01/2009 | Al Manar Israel claimed Hamas was turning the victim into an attacker , signaling the Israeli community, following the Gaza war which killed more than 1,300 people and injured more than 5,000 others.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accused Hamas on Sunday of "attempting to turn the victim into the attacker and the attacker into the victim ‘through a spiral moral policy.’
Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Olmert addressed calls across the world to put Israel soldiers on trial over war crimes committed in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.
The government approves a motion aimed at backing the soldiers and commanders in case of a wave of lawsuits worldwide following the operation.
The prime minister warned the world of what he defined as "the international slalom aimed at turning the aggressors into victims".
"This has been the policy of Hamas and the terror organizations for years, to fight until the last drop of blood of Gaza's residents and hurt them.
"After the operation, the terror organizations are attempting to use different measures to harm us. This is the legal arena. The truth is that they have fired immorally at us, aiming at children and parents rather than at soldiers and military facilities," Olmert said.
"I am not familiar with a more ethical and decent army than the IDF. I have personally witnessed, and the defense minister and chief of staff can testify to this, many cases in which IDF soldiers refrained from executing operations and moved bombs from their course so as not to hurt civilians – even when terrorists were hiding within a civilian population."
Israel is accused of excessively using internationally banned weapons like white phosphorus in densely populated areas in Gaza.
Of the victims of the war, over 350 children were killed.
Richard Falk, an independent UN rights expert, said last week there was compelling evidence that Israel breached basic humanitarian rules and the laws of war by conducting a large-scale military operation "against an essentially defenseless population."
Colonel Yigal Slovik, commander of the 401st Brigade of the Armor Corps, told Ynet on Thursday, "I have no qualms about the manner in which I operated. At worst I'll be denied entry to a few European countries. My subordinates and I have chosen this profession out of faith in the righteousness of our path; we sacrifice much more than a trip to London."
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