Yaalon was the military chief-of-staff when an Israeli air raid killed 15 people in Gaza City [EPA]
Israel's vice-prime minister has cancelled a planned trip to London over fears that he could be arrested for alleged war crimes, his spokesman has said.
Source: The Agencies
- Moshe Yaalon called off the trip fearing that pro-Palestinian groups in London might seek his trial for his role in the 2002 deaths of 15 people, including a Hamas leader and eight children.
- Yaalon was the military chief-of-staff when an Israeli fighter jet dropped a one-tonne bomb in Gaza City, killing Salah Shehadeh, the head of the armed wing of Hamas, along with his wife.
- Israel's foreign ministry advised against the planned trip after it emerged that Yaalon, who is also strategic affairs minister, had been invited to attend a fund-raising dinner hosted by the British branch of the Jewish National Fund.
- Last Tuesday Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, dismissed a bid to have him arrested in Britain as "absurd" while attending the governing Labour party's annual conference.
- British activists had sought his arrest over Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip in December-January, where more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
- The request was denied on the grounds of diplomatic immunity.
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