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Israeli civil rights org. calls for investigation into IDF West Bank chief for suspected war crimes

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel asked the IDF's legal chief to open a criminal investigation into IDF Central Command Chief Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth for suspected war crimes.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) filed an official complaint with the Military Advocate General, Maj.-Gen. Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi, on Tuesday, calling for the IDF to launch a criminal investigation into Central Command Chief Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth, on suspicion of committing war crimes in the West Bank.

Bluth, as part of his role, is responsible for IDF activity in the West Bank.

This would be the first complaint submitted by an Israeli organization against a senior IDF officer on allegations of suspected war crimes in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas War began, according to the ACRI's statement.

"For months, lawlessness in the West Bank has made war crimes and crimes against humanity part of daily life," ACRI argued, adding that the IDF had begun boasting about its actions, expanding the "destructive doctrine of 'no innocents'" from Gaza to the West Bank.

This comes after the IDF issued a defense on Sunday of Bluth's decision last week to clear a massive number of trees to achieve better security oversight of the area near Al-Mughayir village, south of Ramallah.

Palestinians and Israeli outlet Haaretz have claimed that Bluth did not act only out of narrow security considerations, but also out of some attempt to deter Palestinian terror through collective punishment, citing his statements about making problematic villages pay for the actions of terrorists coming from those villages.

Haaretz publisher also calls IDF commander a 'war criminal'

Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken on Sunday called Bluth a “war criminal” whom the International Criminal Court should stop and arrest.

The IDF responded that the massive tree removal took place both in order to catch the terrorist from Al-Mughayir, who, on Thursday, shot a Jewish Israeli civilian in the head near the Malachi Hashalom area, northeast of Ramallah.

The military argues that the move was also made to improve the ability of security forces to intercept such terrorists in advance, following multiple incidents along the Alon Corridor roads.