OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, September 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Former Israeli chief of staff Moshe Yaalon has cancelled a scheduled visit to Britain for fears of arrest over charges of war crimes against Palestinian civilians, Israeli radio reported Thursday, September 15.

Yaalon scrapped plans to visit Britain to take part in a fund-raising event organized by an Israeli soldiers support group, according to Agence France Presse (AFP).

Israel's top brass have been facing risks of being summoned before British courts and prosecuted for war crimes after appeals were made by rights groups who failed to get such cases heard in Israel.

Britain is one of several European countries which allow investigations of war crimes involving foreign nationals if the suspect's own country is unwilling or unable to act.

Former Israeli commander of the Gaza Strip Doron Almog narrowly escaped arrest Sunday after a London magistrate had issued a warrant for arresting him over his role in a 2002 bombing raid that killed 15 Palestinians, many of them children.

Yaalon and his successor chief of staff Dan Halutz are also the subject of a case being compiled by an Israeli peace movement and London lawyers over their role in the same operation.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom Wednesday blasted as "scandalous" the British attempt to arrest and question the former Gaza military commander Almog for war crimes against Palestinians.

"The fact that Israeli soldiers and high-ranking officials are prevented from entering European countries is an outrage," Shalom was quoted as saying by the BBC News Online.

"We take a grave view of this. Don't forget that Britain has troops in Iraq. What will it do if other countries decide that British officers and soldiers committed war crimes in Iraq?

"Will they consent to having them arrested in other countries? I think it should change at once."

He said the issue would be discussed between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, as well as between him and British counterpart Jack Straw.

"We must put an end to this while it is still in the early stages ... This matter has to end immediately," said Shalom.

Last March, Amnesty International accused Israel of committing "war crimes" against the Palestinian people, saying that Israel's occupation army last year killed more than 700 Palestinians, including 150 children.

Almog said he flew to London with his wife Sunday for a vacation but decided not to disembark after Israel's ambassador to Britain boarded the plane and warned him that he could be taken into custody, according to Reuters.

"I think there is a basic, fundamental problem here, in that any soldier who has taken part in the fight against Palestinian terrorism over the past five years can find himself accused of war crimes," Almog told Israel's Channel One television.

A British law firm said it had secured an arrest warrant for Almog in connection with the July 2002 killing of senior Hamas leader Salah Shehada and 14 other Palestinians, including children, when an Israeli fighter jet dropped a one-ton bomb on the area.

"This unprecedented arrest warrant against a senior Israeli soldier was issued after years of failed efforts to obtain justice through the Israeli judicial system," Hickman & Rose Solicitors said in a statement.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz faced a similar situation in Britain three year ago, he then quickly left the country to avoid an arrest warrant for war crimes.