[R-G] Israeli soldiers have admitted shooting dead unarmed Palestinian civilians during the Gaza war

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/5016115/Israeli-soldiers-admit-shooting-dead-civilians-during-Gaza-war.html

Israeli soldiers admit shooting dead civilians during Gaza war
Israeli soldiers have admitted shooting dead unarmed Palestinian  
civilians during the Gaza war.


By Dina Kraft in Tel Aviv
Last Updated: 7:56AM GMT 20 Mar 2009
An Israeli soldier stands on top of a tank : Israeli soldiers admit  
shooting dead civilians during Gaza war
 From the soldiers' testimony there appeared to be a policy in place,  
that anyone who remained in certain open areas would be deemed as  
suspicious and could be shot Photo: AFP/GETTY

In detailed accounts published by the Israeli media, soldiers also  
told of the wanton destruction of property during the 22-day conflict  
with Hamas.

An infantry squad leader described an incident in which a sniper  
mistakenly shot a Palestinian woman and her two children after the  
family misunderstood the order of another soldier and turned the wrong  
direction.

"The sharpshooter saw a woman and children approaching him, closer  
than the lines he was told no one should pass. He shot them straight  
away," he said.

"I don't think he felt too bad about it, because after all, as far as  
he was concerned, he did his job according to the orders he was given.  
And the atmosphere in general, from what I understood from most of my  
men who I talked to ... I don't know how to describe it .... The lives  
of Palestinians, let's say, is something [that seemed] much less  
important than the lives of our soldiers. So as far as they are  
concerned they can justify it that way."

 From the soldiers' testimony there appeared to be a policy in place,  
at least during part of the operation, that anyone who remained in  
certain open areas would be deemed as suspicious and could be shot.

The Israeli army said that its chief advocate had ordered the military  
police to investigate the claims. An earlier statement said that the  
army had no evidence to support claims in Haaretz that the soldiers  
acted under what the newspaper described as "permissive rules of  
engagement".

Another squad leader described such a situation in which an older  
Palestinian woman was shot and killed because she was walking about  
100 yards from a house that the company had taken over.

The same soldier described graffiti such as "Death to the Arabs"  
written on the walls of homes that were commandeered and said he saw  
soldiers spitting on family photographs.

"I think this is the main thing: to understand how much the Israel  
Defence Forces has fallen in the realm of ethics, really. It's what  
I'll remember the most," he said.

The accounts, which were published in the Haaretz and Maariv  
newspapers, immediately met with calls for an independent inquiry. A  
human rights groups, Yesh Din, said: "The testimonies that were  
published today in the Israeli media cast a shadow not just over the  
specific soldiers who carried out these deeds but also on high-ranking  
officials who gave the commands to open fire.

"If these orders were given as described in the testimonies, then both  
the issuing of the orders and their implementation are criminal  
offences."

Israel launched a massive three-week air and ground assault on Gaza at  
the end of December in response to rocket fire into Israel by militant  
groups. In the course of the fighting an estimated 1,300 Palestinian  
were killed, as many as half of them thought to be civilians. Thirteen  
Israelis were killed.