Three Hundred Investigations. Twenty-Eight Answers.

The Israeli Defense Forces have perfected a strategy of announcing investigations that vanish into a bureaucratic abyss. This is deliberate design, ensuring accountability remains a fleeting concept. The killing of Nahida Anton and her daughter Samar inside the Holy Family church in Gaza remains "under review" almost three years later. That's not an investigation. That's a fucking filing system.

BBC Verify's analysis of 61,000 news reports revealed 300 unique incidents where the IDF announced investigations into allegations of killing or injuring people across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Israel. The IDF published outcomes for only 28 of these incidents. The rest vanished without a trace.

The IDF's use of press-office verbs like "review," "looked into," "checked," and "examined" creates an illusion of action while ensuring nothing actually gets done. Their claims of taking every allegation "with the utmost seriousness" ring hollow when the outcomes are nowhere to be found. Don't trust the coffee when the people serving it tell you how good it is while the pot has been empty for three years.

The rare instances where the IDF published investigation results only highlight the gaps. Out of 300 incidents, 28 outcomes were made public. Fewer than one in ten. The rest are the ones the IDF chose to let slip into obscurity.

Yesh Din's Freedom of Information data painted a bleaker picture. Between October 2023 and August 2024, at least 1,456 Gaza-related incidents were referred to the IDF's Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism. Twelve were completed and referred to the Military Advocate General. Two resulted in criminal investigations. Two. That's not a system. That's a drain, engineered to run until people forget and stop caring.

The International Committee of the Red Cross calls for transparency in investigations related to potential violations of international humanitarian law. The IDF's three-year silence on the sniper killing of Nahida Anton and her daughter inside a church courtyard answers that call.

The IDF's own former top lawyer, Eran Shamir-Borer, acknowledged that Israel would benefit from increased transparency. The data disagrees with his optimism. The question isn't whether they're shortening procedures to meet external timelines. It's whether they're doing the work at all, and if they are, whether anyone will ever see the results. The numbers say no.

One of the deadliest cases still under review is the airstrike on the Tabaeen school complex in eastern Gaza City in August 2024. At least 93 people killed, including six women and 11 children. Precision-guided. Still under review.

In the West Bank, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023. BBC Verify examined 50 IDF investigations, at least 26 involving women and children killed or injured. One case was 16-year-old Lujain Musleh, shot in the head while looking out her window in Kafr Dan, near Jenin, in September 2024. The IDF claimed soldiers fired at a suspect who "observed" them. A teenager at her window. Under review.

The pattern holds: announce, delay, vanish. The ICRC calls for prompt, thorough, and impartial investigations. The IDF's record answers that call with silence. The evidence exists, built by BBC Verify's tools, manual checks, and filed requests. A military with the legal infrastructure to investigate itself has announced 300 investigations and produced 28 outcomes. The gap between those numbers is where accountability goes to die. Quietly. No press release. No deadline. No name attached to the decision to let it sit.