HMLG:

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE 2014 GAZA CONFLICT
General Klaus Dieter Naumann
(Germany) is the
former Chief of Staff of the Bundeswehr, the German
armed forces and served as Chairman of the NATO Military
Committee from 1996 to 1999.

General Vincenzo Camporini
(Italy) is the former
Chief of Defence Staff of Italy. He served as Deputy Chief
of Defence General Staff and President of the Italian Centre
for High Defence Studies before being appointed Chief of
Staff of the Italian Air Force and subsequently Chief of
Defence General Staff.

Lieutenant General David A. Deptula
(United States)
was the principal attack planner for the Desert Storm coalition
air campaign in 1991, served as Director of the Combined
Air Operations Center in Afghanistan and served as the first
Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance and
Reconnaissance (ISR), Headquarters Air Force.

Admiral José María Terán
(Spain) serves in the Office
of Strategic Assessment of the Minister of Defence of
Spain. A former Chief of the Joint Staff and Chief of the
Strategic Analysis Group, he has also served as Director for
Reorganisation of the Spanish Intelligence Service.

Major General Andrew James Molan
(Australia)
served as the Chief of Operations for the Headquarters
Multinational Force in Iraq. He is a former Commander
of the Australian Defence College and has served as Adviser
to the Vice Chief of the Australian Defence Force on Joint
Warfighting Lessons and Concepts.

Lieutenant General Kamal Davar
(India) served as
the first Director General of the Defence Intelligence Agency
of India. A former Director-General, Mechanised Forces
at Army Headquarters, he has held a large number of high
ranking command posts in the Indian Army and served on
the Indian Military Training Team in Iraq.

Brigadier General Alain Lamballe
(France) served
in the General Secretariat for National Defence as head of
the Southeast Asia and Europe sections as well as heading
the Central Liaison Mission for Assistance to Foreign
Forces. He is the former Director of the Department of
Security Cooperation of the OSCE Mission in Bosnia
and Herzegovina.

Colonel Richard Kemp
(United Kingdom) was
Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan and has
served in Iraq, the Balkans, South Asia and Northern
Ireland. He has led the international terrorism team at
the UK's Joint Intelligence Committee and served as
chairman of the strategic intelligence group for COBRA,
the UK national crisis management committee.

Colonel Vincent Alcazar
(United States) served as a
fighter pilot in Operations Desert Storm and Southern Watch
as well as various other post 9/11 theatres. He subsequently
served in strategic roles at the Pentagon, the U.S. Defense
Intelligence Agency and at the U.S. embassy, Baghdad, Iraq.

Colonel Eduardo Ramirez
(Colombia) is an
Advisor to the Congress of Colombia who served with the
Colombian National Police from 1987 until 2013. He was
formerly the Chief of Security Staff for President Uribe
of Colombia, as well as Chief of Section at the Judicial
and Criminal Directory of the National Police.
Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper

(United States)
was Ambassador-at-large in charge of the US Secretary of
State's Office of War Crimes Issues. A former Presidential
envoy and adviser to the National Security Council he was
previously a war crimes prosecutor for the United Nations
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Rafael L. Bardají
is the Executive Director of the
Friends of Israel Initiative and National Security Advisor to
Former President, José María Aznar. He formerly served in
the Government of Spain as the National Security Adviser
and in leadership positions in the Ministry of Defence.

Davis Lewin
is the Rapporteur of the High Level Military
Group. He is the Deputy Director and Head of Policy and
Research at The Henry Jackson Society, a London based
Foreign and Defence Policy think tank.

Joseph Raskas
is a Research Assistant for The Friends of
Israel Initiative and a Fellow at The Public Interest Fellowship.


The High Level Military Group was formed in early
2015 with a mandate to examine Israel's conduct of
the 2014 Gaza Conflict, in the context of a larger
project seeking to address the implications for
Western warfare of fighting enemies who disregard
the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) but exploit our
own nations' adherence to LOAC for their gain.
HLMG members have a wealth of experience at the
very highest operational and policy levels as regards
the conduct of warfare and its attendant policies.
Our purpose is to add a professional military and
legal element to this debate, which at times has been
ill-informed and politicised, and which is of vital
importance to our own armies and alliance partners.

The HLMG had unprecedented access to Israel's
decision makers, from the Prime Minister and
Defence Minister, through the military top-
level leadership to individual unit commanders
and soldiers as well as civilians affected by the
fighting.   Former officials who have retired since
the conflict took place were also made available.
The HLMG was able to extensively examine all
pertinent aspects of Israel's conduct, as well as the
country's political, military and legal structures.
Israel's government and military offered a level of
cooperation in seeking to illuminate their actions
that is highly unusual in such a context, offering
open, clear responses to an examination that went
far beyond what our own countries would expect
to have to reveal even to allied militaries.