[JURIST] Israeli military officials said Thursday there was a 36 per cent increase in 2007 of investigations of members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) [official website] for acts of violence committed against Palestinian civilians. The announcement came a week after a report [PDF text; JURIST report] from Israeli human rights group Yesh Din [advocacy website] criticized the Israeli government for only opening 239 investigations into IDF killings of Palestinians, despite thousands of alleged incidents. Thursday's government report said that 207 of those investigations occurred in 2007.

The Yesh Din report also said that only 10 percent of criminal investigations of IDF troops have resulted in any indictment being filed; the group said it will be conducting its own investigation into the low number of indictments. AP has more.