By MOHAMMED MAR’I | ARAB NEWS
RAMALLAH: A top Israeli military officer canceled a trip to Britain out of fear he would be arrested, a report said on Thursday.
The Israel Radio said that Maj. Gen. Yohanan Locker, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military secretary, decided not to join the premiere on his visit to Britain for fear of being arrested over his role in the 2008-2009 Israeli large scale military operation in Gaza Strip.
The report said that Locker, who served as the head of the Israeli Air Force’s Air Directorate during the offensive, made the decision after consulting with senior officials and legal experts.
The Goldstone Report, conducted by a UN fact-finding mission led by South African Judge Richard Goldstone, found that Israel had committed war crimes in its offensive which killed 1,400 Palestinians.
Amnesty International confirmed that 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the offensive. Of these, 300 were children, more than 115 were women and about 85 were men over the age of 50.