Israeli soldiers admit to 'cold blooded murder' of Palestinians in Gaza

Friday, 20 March 2009 06:18

A damning report into the conduct of Israeli soldiers during the conflict in Gaza reveals the lax rules of engagement which left them free to commit 'cold blooded murder'. The testimonies of soldiers were anonymously delivered a month ago at a meeting of the Israeli military academy and are now the subject of a military investigation.

Soldiers revealed details of their permissive conduct in Gaza saying:

“That’s the beauty of Gaza. You see a man walking, he doesn’t have to have a weapon, and you can shoot him.”

"When we entered a house, we were supposed to bust down the door and start shooting inside and just go up storey by storey… I call that murder. Each storey, if we identify a person, we shoot them. I asked myself – how is this reasonable?"

A soldier said of the permissive and wanton cruelty inflicted: "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."

The wilful destruction of Palestinian homes and properties is revealed as soldiers admit:

“We simply threw everything out the windows to make room and order. The entire contents of the house flew out the windows: refrigerator, plates, furniture. The order was to remove the entire contents of the house.”

Military rabbis distributed articles from ultra nationalist religious figures, including Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, who instructed soldiers that “When you show mercy to a cruel enemy, you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers … This is a war on murderers."

Soldiers said that, “All these articles had a clear message: we are the Jewish people, we have come to the land by miraculous means, and now we have to fight to remove the Gentiles who are getting in our way and preventing us from occupying the Holy Land… a great many soldiers had a feeling throughout this operation of a religious war."

The disclosures come as Human Rights Watch and others urge EU foreign ministers to investigate allegations of war crimes in Gaza.

ENGAGE awaits the response of our Foreign Secretary David Miliband to our letter sent yesterday in which allegations of Israeli war crimes and the Government's support for thorough investigations are reiterated.

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