The Israeli military has closed dozens of cases believed to have amounted to war crimes between 2023-2024, according to the Jerusalem Post.
In a report published earlier this week, the newspaper disclosed that the army’s legal branches had decided to block investigations into an unspecified number of war-crimes cases involving Israeli officials and military personnel and officials beginning when the war on Gaza started in October 2023.
Although the exact list of cases dismissed have not been made public, the Jerusalem Post said many of the investigations relate to the deaths of 98 detainees held at the notorious Sde Teiman detention centre as well as other facilities.
The investigations, according to the report, were being conducted by the Israeli military’s legal division looking into soldiers’ conduct towards Palestinian prisoners.
Rights groups had previously recorded at least 98 deaths in Israeli detention since October 2023, accusing authorities of torture and medical neglect.
Not every death triggered a probe, the Jerusalem Post continues, saying that some Palestinian detainees were mortally wounded "in battlefield" and subsequently died in detention.
Human rights organisations, however, have long called for independent investigations into abuses by Israeli soldiers towards Palestinian prisoners, with B’Tselem previously saying that "Israel has instated a systemic policy of abusing and torturing thousands of Palestinians in its custody".
Sde Teiman, in particular, has drawn widespread condemnation amid reports of horrific rape by Israeli soldiers of Palestinian detainees there.
The Jerusalem Post said that the decision to close these investigations was taken over fears that the cases may come to the attention of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC)
The ICC has issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Likewise, South Africa filed a case against Israel at the ICJ in December 2023, saying that Israel’s military campaign and policies towards Palestinians in Gaza amount to genocide.
Israel is expected to respond to the ICJ case by March 12, with the Jerusalem Post suggesting Israel’s legal defence brief is approximately 1,000 pages long.
The genocide case has argued that Israel’s policies in Gaza have amounted to war crimes and a genocidal agenda, while highlighting specific cases including the 1 April 2024 killing of seven World Central Kitchen employees and the massacre of paramedics on 23 March 2025 in Rafah.
In both cases, results of the criminal probes have consistently been delayed and not released in full.