And the justified legal avalanche against Israel continues:
Israel reacted furiously to a decision by a Spanish judge on Thursday to open a probe of seven former top security officials for alleged war crimes in the 2002 bombing in Gaza that killed top Hamas terrorist Salah Shehadeh as well as 14 other people and is considering appealing the move.
The investigation has been ordered against National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who was defense minister at the time; Likud Knesset candidate Moshe Ya’alon, who was chief of General Staff; Dan Halutz, then commander of the air force; Doron Almog, who was OC Southern Command; then-National Security Council head Giora Eiland; the defense minister’s military secretary, Mike Herzog; and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, who was head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).
The Justice Ministry rejected allegations that it had failed to take seriously a request from Spanish authorities to turn over key documents connected to the targeted killing of Shehadeh…
Defense Minister Ehud Barak blasted the Spanish judge’s decision, saying that “Someone who calls the assassination of a terrorist a crime against humanity lives in an upside-down world.”
“Shehadeh was responsible for the murder of dozens of Israelis,” Dichter told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday night. “We pursued him for a long time. The man was a terrorist responsible for dozens of attacks against Israeli civilians. He knew we were pursuing him and went from multi-story building to multi-story building. On the day of the assassination, he was in the building with his wife, who aided him, and was killed in the strike.
“To my sorrow, innocent people were harmed in the strike, and I do regret that,” Dichter said.
Regret isn’t really good enough. Leaders from all countries, including the so-called “civilised” world, need to be held to account for the death of non-combatants.