Israeli soldiers reveal the brutal truth of Gaza attack

[Karmadillo]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-soldiers-reveal-the-brutal-truth-of-gaza-attack-1746485.html

Israeli soldiers reveal the brutal truth of Gaza attack

Troops' testimonies disclose loose rules of engagement and use of civilians as human shields. Palestinian houses were systematically destroyed by 'insane artillery firepower'

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Wednesday, 15 July 2009

Israeli troops were repeatedly encouraged by officers to prioritise their own safety over that of Palestinian civilians when they embarked on the ground invasion of Gaza in January, according to the first direct testimonies of soldiers who served in the operation.

The picture that emerges from the testimonies, which have been seen by The Independent, is one of massive fire power to cover advances and rules of engagement that were calculated to ensure, in the words attributed to one battalion commander, that "not a hair will fall of a soldier of mine. I am not willing to allow a soldier of mine to risk himself by hesitating. If you are not sure, shoot."

The first eye-witness accounts of the war by serving Israeli reservists and conscripts describes the Israeli use of Palestinian civilians as "human shields". They detail the killing of at least two civilians, the vandalism, looting and wholesale destruction of Palestinian houses, the use of deadly white phosphorus, bellicose religious advice from army rabbis and what another battalion commander described to his troops as "insane firepower with artillery and air force". The reports amount to the most formidable challenge by Israelis since the Gaza war to the military's own considered view that it conducted the operation according to international law and made "an enormous effort to focus its fire only against the terrorists whilst doing the utmost to avoid harming uninvolved civilians".

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The testimonies appear to reinforce evidence from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and journalists who visited battle zones just after the war in January that white phosphorus was used for purposes other than "marking", "range-finding" and "smoke screening". Those purposes included to ignite homes suspected of being booby trapped.

Houses that troops occupied were vandalised. One testimony stated: "One of the soldiers... opened the child's bag... he took out notebooks and ripped them. One guy smashed cupboards for kicks out of boredom. There were guys arguing with the platoon commander before we left the house why he wouldn't let them smash the picture hanging there..." A reservist soldier said that there was a "big difference between the way we treated the contents of the house and the way the regulars did. The regulars wouldn't take care even of the most basic sanitary stuff like going to the toilet, basic hygiene. I mean you could see that they had defecated anywhere and left the stuff lying round".

A spokeswoman for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Leibovitz, sought to challenge the motives and credibility of the report. She said "more than a dozen" military police investigations were under way into incidents that took place during Operation Cast Lead. While the IDF continued to operate according to "uncompromising ethical values", it was ready to investigate allegations of misconduct but not on the basis of anonymous testimonies which she could not be sure were from soldiers.

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[Scurrilous]

1. Israeli officials criticize human rights group report

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"Israeli officials criticized a report citing Israeli soldiers who said they perpetrated human rights abuses.

A new booklet released Wednesday by the Israeli human rights group Breaking the Silence presents the testimony of 54 combat soldiers who participated in Operation Cast Lead in January in Gaza. The soldiers claimed to have destroyed homes and mosques for no military purpose, used Palestinian civilians as human shields and were urged to shoot first, worry later. The soldiers who offered their accounts did so anonymously.

The report also charges that Israel used the banned substance white phosphorous in Gazan neighborhoods, despite IDF statements to the contrary.

"Any criticism of the IDF from this or that organization is misplaced and misdirected," Defense Minister Ehud Barak responded. "If someone has a criticism, or information or conclusions about IDF actions, they should bring them to me, as minister of defense of the State of Israel, and to the Israeli government that instructed the IDF to restore quiet to the communities in the south," he said. "The IDF is the most moral army in the world and it operates according to the highest ethical code."

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