Pilots in Israeli squadron that killed Nasrallah feared war crimes prosecutions
Pilots in the Israeli squadron which carried out the Beirut air strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously took part in anti-government protests over concerns that judicial reforms could lead to military personnel being prosecuted for war crimes.
Last Friday’s massive air strike, which Israel said targeted Hezbollah’s underground headquarters, flattened four residential buildings in the Lebanese capital’s southern suburb of Dariyeh.
More than 1,000 people have been killed, according to the Lebanese health ministry, since Israel stepped up air strikes earlier this month, while more than 1.2 million people – almost a quarter of the population - have been displaced, according to Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
Early on Friday, Israeli fighter jets carried out further massive strikes in Beirut in a wave of attacks that some reports said targeted Nasrallah’s presumed successor, Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s executive council.
The raid which killed Nasrallah, codenamed Operation New Order by the Israeli Air Force, was carried out by the 69th Squadron.
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Footage later released by the Israeli military appeared to show eight F-16 fighter jets armed with bunker-busting bombs on the runway at the Hatzerim air force base in southern Israel prior to the attack.
Pilots in the 69th Squadron previously played a key role in protests against the Israeli government in March 2023 amid warnings that the proposed judicial reforms could expose military personnel to prosecution at the International Criminal Court.
Thirty-seven out of the squadron’s 40 reserve pilots said then that they would not take part in a training exercise in protest at what critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition described as a “judicial coup”.
Senior reservists expressed concerns that the reforms, by undermining the independence and legitimacy of the judicial system, could leave military personnel liable to investigation and prosecution for war crimes by the ICC.
The pilots’ proposed protest drew condemnation from Netanyahu, who said: “Refusal to serve threatens the foundation of our existence, and therefore it must have no place in our ranks.”
Defence minister Yoav Gallant also criticised the pilots, while Israeli media reported that Israeli chief of staff, Lieutenant General Herzl Halevi, had privately told Netanyahu that even discussion of refusal to serve could harm the military’s “operational capacity”.
Following a meeting with squadron commanders and air force officials, the reservists said they would attend the training exercise.
“We have full confidence in our commanders. We will continue to serve the Jewish and democratic State of Israel as long as is required,” they said in a statement.
Commenting on Monday, Brigadier-General Amichai Levine, the commander of the Hatzerim airbase, said that about half of the pilots who took part in the raid in which Nasrallah was killed had been reservists.
'Love for their country'
Levine said: “No one in Israel should doubt their love for the country, their willingness to sacrifice their lives, and even put their lives on the line for both nearby and distant missions – I think this operation underscores that."
Levine said the squadron was continuing to operate “intensively and significantly” in Gaza, where air strikes earlier this week struck school buildings and an orphanage sheltering displaced people, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
“For 11 months, they’ve been on alert, flying around the clock, and they’ll continue as long as the war goes on,” said Levine.
Warnings that reforms undermining the independence of the judicial system could lead to prosecutions of military personnel in international courts were also heard at a Knesset committee hearing in February 2023.
Gilad Noam, Israel’s deputy attorney general, told the parliament’s constitutional committee that the high court had served as an “iron dome” shielding soldiers and officials from potential scrutiny.
Under its own rules, the ICC’s jurisdiction only extends to cases where it is deemed that a state’s own judicial system has failed or is unable to properly investigate alleged violations.
Asked about the consequences of the reforms for Israeli soldiers, Noam said “the prestige of the high court, and of the Israeli justice system as a whole, has helped us in dealing with initiatives to bring proceedings against Israel and its leaders at the Criminal Court in The Hague.”
Similar concerns were also voiced by protest organisations, which have described Israel’s judicial system as a “bulletproof vest for IDF officers against international law”.
After the Knesset passed the first raft of judicial reforms in July 2023, including the so-called "reasonableness" law removing the courts’ power of judicial review of government decisions, at least 10,000 reservists declared their intention to suspend their service in protest.
"The lack of around 250 combat pilots brings Israel to incompetence, it scares me," said one reservist, who spoke to Middle East Eye at the time on condition of anonymity.
Writing in praise of the pilots in Haaretz on Tuesday, Ran Goren a former 69th Squadron fighter pilot, said that the reservists had not “changed their skin” since taking part in the protests.
“These are the same opinionated, moral and patriotic people, who are always at the forefront of action for the State of Israel - leading a protest to protect Israeli democracy when it is threatened, and fighting with all their might for the defence of the country during war,” wrote Goren.
Commenting on Goren’s remarks, Yuni Mandel, a professor of Middle East studies at Ben Gurion University, told MEE that they exemplified the securitisation of Israeli society.
“On average days, the pilots fight for democracy. But in times of war, they fight for their country. This is Israel’s story since ever. When something is security-oriented then all parameters are forgotten.”
'Everybody's God'
The reasonableness law was overturned by Israel's Supreme Court in January.
Orly Noy, the head of the Israeli human rights organisation B’tselem, told MEE that the initial impetus behind the mass demonstrations had been a desire by many to maintain Israel’s “structural democracy” in order to protect the rights and privileges bestowed by the system on the country’s Jewish citizens.
But presenting Israel’s courts as a shield protecting soldiers from international courts had been an effective way to widen support for the protest movement, she said.
'The army is everybody’s God in Israel, so it was not controversial to unite as many people as possible around it'
- Orly Noy, B'tselem
“The army is everybody’s God in Israel, so it was not controversial to unite as many people as possible around it,” said Noy.
“Of course, after the war in Gaza it became a very real thing and it was said explicitly by the leaders of the protests that now the Supreme Court is literally the shield to protect Israeli soldiers.
“And, by the way, to protect the same pilots who threatened to refuse to fulfil their military orders if Netanyahu continues with the judicial reforms but didn’t think twice when they were called to bomb civilians in Gaza. So this is the kind of democracy we are talking about.”
Israel is currently the subject of an investigation by the ICC over its conduct of the war in Gaza where more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Palestinian ministry of health.
It also faces a separate case at the International Court of Justice in which it is accused of genocide – a charge Israel denies.
Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, has called on the court to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, as well as for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Khan also requested warrants for two more Hamas leaders, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif, who have both since been killed.
Investigations
The Palestinian Authority joined the ICC in 2015, giving it jurisdiction to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Israeli forces in the occupied territories of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem even though Israel does not recognise the court.
But the Lebanese government has faced criticism from human rights organisations for also failing to recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC, which is a necessary precursor to its investigating alleged war crimes in Lebanon.
The Lebanese government has accused Israel of committing war crimes in Lebanon since last October, and in April announced it would file a declaration with the ICC accepting its jurisdiction.
But the declaration was never filed, and in an updated statement the Lebanese government said it would file complaints to the United Nations instead.
On Wednesday, following reports of the deaths of six Israeli soldiers in fighting with Hezbollah, Tomer Naor, the chief legal officer of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, which was among the organisers of mass protests against the judicial reforms, called for the Israeli government to declare a "killing zone" in villages in southern Lebanon.
Writing on X, Naor said Israel should give local residents 24 hours to evacuate before "flattening" the area.
"This is not Gaza, the rules of the game here should be different," said Naor.
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