The farce of IDF self-investigation
JVL Introduction
International law is clear: states are under an obligation to investigate alleged war crimes committed by their nationals or armed forces. If evidence is found, they are obliged to prosecute them.
Yet Israel suffers from a clear case of impunity. Case are investigated slowly, if at all. On the very rare occasions where someone is held accountable they get very limited punishment, and that is usually commuted soon after.
Self-investigation is thus used as a tool not for punishing crimes but for avoiding external scrutiny. International courts cannot begin to get involved if national investigations are apparently under way.
Yet clearly often they are not as BBC Verify has just found, with an investigation into this very issue.
It identified 254 incidents in which the Israeli military has been accused of killing or injuring people in Gaza, Lebanon, the occupied West Bank and Israel that it said it was investigating.
Yet nothing has come of them…
I wish we could say we were surprised.
This article was originally published by BBC Verify on Thu 15 Oct 2026. Read the original here.
Hundreds of IDF investigations into killings still have no public outcome, BBC Verify finds
BBC Verify has identified 254 incidents in which the Israeli military has been accused of killing or injuring people in Gaza, Lebanon, the occupied West Bank and Israel that it said it was investigating, but have no public outcome.
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