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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Gaza war order was "shoot first," some troops say

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Some Israeli soldiers who took part in the January invasion of the Gaza Strip say they were encouraged by commanders to shoot first and worry later about civilians, and went into Gaza with guns blazing.

Testimony from 30 veterans of Operation Cast Lead, published on Wednesday by the activist group "Breaking the Silence," lends credence to charges by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and U.N. agencies that Israeli forces inflicted civilian death and destruction on an unjustifiable scale.

But the report drew an angry reaction from the military -- which has already rejected war crimes charges by international groups -- in a 3-page statement rebutting the allegations as a slanderous and defamatory mix of rumor and hearsay.

In print and video testimony, almost all of it nameless and digitally blurred, soldiers say the army's Gaza imperative was to minimize its own casualties to maintain public support.

"Better hit an innocent than hesitate to target an enemy," was a typical description by one unidentified soldier of his understanding of instructions repeated at pre-invasion briefings and during the 22-day operation, from December 27 to January 18.

"If you're not sure, kill. Fire power was insane. We went in and the booms were just mad," says another. "The minute we got to our starting line, we simply began to fire at suspect places.

"In urban warfare, anyone is your enemy. No innocents."

DEFAMATION AND SLANDER

The army issued a statement saying it "regrets the fact that yet another human rights organization is presenting to Israel and the world a report based on anonymous and general testimonies," while denying it "the minimal decency" of sending it an advance copy to allow the military to investigate.

"This was done while defaming and slandering the IDF (Israel Defense Force) and its commanders," the statement said.

It acknowledged "there were isolated incidences in which unintentional harm was caused to noncombatants as the result of operational errors" that were unavoidable in complex fighting.

Operation Cast Lead had the declared aim of forcing Islamist Hamas fighters, who deny Israel's right to exist, to stop rocket and mortar attacks aimed at southern Israeli towns.

A Palestinian rights group says 1,417 people were killed, in the 22-day onslaught, 926 of them civilians. The Israeli army put the toll at 1,166 and estimated 295 dead were civilians. Israel said 10 of its soldiers and three civilians were killed.

Whole streets in parts of the Gaza Strip were razed to minimize the risk of Israeli casualties from small-arms attacks and booby-trap bombs. The United Nations says Gaza six months later is just beginning to clear 600,000 tons of rubble.

Amnesty International labeled Israel's actions "wanton." The Anti-Defamation League in the United States accused Amnesty of "outrageously accusing the Israeli military of war crimes."

"MASSIVE DESTRUCTION"

Soldiers in Israel's largely conscript army have standing orders not to talk to the media. Breaking the Silence said those quoted "served in all sectors of the (Gaza) operation."

"The majority ... are still serving in their regular military units and turned to us in deep distress at the moral deterioration of the IDF," it said. Their narratives "are enough to bring into question the credibility" of the official line.

Transcripts can be seen at www.breakingthesilence.org.il.

Soldiers describe a "Neighbor Procedure" in which civilians were forced to enter suspect buildings ahead of troops. They cite at least one "human shield" case of a civilian forced to walk in front of a soldier resting a rifle on his shoulder.

Speaking on Israel Radio, Colonel Avi Peled said that story was based completely on hearsay.

"The soldier who testified spoke to his commander and the matter was investigated," he said. "He did not speak of his own experience. He spoke about something he'd heard that took place in the first week of the fighting (when) he was not even there."

"We never used any civilian as a human shield," Peled said.

The soldiers repeat charges leveled by international rights groups but denied by Israel that white phosphorus -- whose use as an incendiary is banned in populated areas -- was fired indiscriminately into Gaza streets.

In its summary, Breaking the Silence says these accounts indicate the "massive destruction" inflicted on Gaza "was unrelated to any direct threat to Israeli forces," and that the rules of engagement were deliberately "permissive."

"We did not get instructions to shoot at anything that moved," says one soldier. "But we were generally instructed: if you feel threatened, shoot. They kept repeating to us that this is war and in war opening fire is not restricted."

To strip away cover for Hamas fighters, soldiers said, first aerial bombardment and artillery, then demolition charges and armored bulldozers razed whole areas including gardens, and olive and orange groves.

"We didn't see a single house that was intact ... that was not hit. The entire infrastructure, tracks, fields, roads, was in total ruin. The D-9 (bulldozer) had gone over everything," the report quoted one as saying.

This was also evident to foreign reporters who were allowed into Gaza by the army only after fighting stopped on Jan 22.

"There was a clear feeling, and this was repeated whenever others spoke to us, that no humanitarian consideration played any role in the army at present," a soldier says.

"The goal was to carry out an operation with the least possible casualties for the army."

The army rebuttal said: "Most of the testimonies are anonymous and lack any identifying details that would allow the IDF to investigate, confirm, or refute them ... not even a first initial ..." and no ranks or unit names at all are provided.

Responding to Wednesday's report, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement: "The IDF is one of the most moral armies in the world and behaves in accordance with the highest ethical code."

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