http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/1141919.html
Israeli soldiers describe moral Twilight Zone' of Gaza offensive
By DION NISSENBAUM
McClatchy Newspapers
JERUSALEM -- Israeli combat soldiers have acknowledged that they forced
Palestinian civilians to serve as human shields, needlessly killed
unarmed Gazans and improperly used white phosphorus shells to burn down
buildings as part of Israel's three-week military offensive in the Gaza
Strip last winter.
In filmed testimony and written statements released Wednesday, more than
two dozen soldiers told an Israeli army veterans group that military
commanders led the fighters into what one described as a "moral Twilight
Zone" where almost every Palestinian was seen as a threat.
Soldiers described incidents in which Israeli forces killed an unarmed
Palestinian carrying a white cloth, an elderly woman carrying a sack, a
Gazan riding a motorcycle and an elderly man with a flashlight, said
Breaking the Silence, a group formed by army reservists in 2004.
Any Palestinian spotted near Israeli troops was considered suspect. A
man talking on a cell phone on the roof of his building was viewed as a
legitimate target because he could have been telling militants where to
find Israeli forces, the group quoted soldiers as saying.
"In urban warfare, everyone is your enemy," said one soldier. "No
innocents."
The 110-pages of testimony - along with 16 video clips - of interviews
with 26 unnamed Israeli soldiers offers the most comprehensive look
inside a military campaign that's become the subject of an unfolding
United Nations war crimes investigation.
The Israel Defense Forces dismissed the report.
IDF spokeswoman Avital Leibovich said Tuesday that the IDF now is
conducting dozens of investigations into troop conduct during the Gaza
operation and that more than a dozen cases led to police investigations.
In April, the IDF announced it had concluded five high-level
investigations, including one into the use of phosphorus to burn down
buildings, and cleared itself.
Yehuda Shaul, a co-founder of Breaking the Silence, said the report
didn't identify the soldiers by name because at least half the men
quoted were young conscripts who could be jailed for speaking to the
media. He agreed, however, to name the units and where they were
operating in several instances.
Two soldiers from the Givati brigade who served in Zeitoun told the
story of shooting an unarmed civilian without warning him.
The elderly man was walking with a flashlight toward a building where
Israeli forces were taking cover.
The Israeli officer in the house repeatedly ignored requests from other
soldiers to fire warning shots as the man approached, the soldiers said.
Instead, when he got within 20 yards of the soldiers, the commander
ordered snipers to kill the man.
The soldiers later confirmed that the man was unarmed.
When they complained to their commander about the incident, the soldiers
were rebuffed and told that anyone walking at night was immediately suspect.
Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights attorney who reviewed the
testimony, said the stories reflected a "dramatic change in the ethos"
of the Israeli military that portrays itself as the most moral army in
the world.
"What we are seeing now is a deterioration of our moral values and red
lines," Sfard said. "This is a dramatic change in heart and values."
Israel launched the 22-day military offensive on Dec. 27 in a bid to
destabilize the Hamas-led government and deter Palestinian militants
who've fired thousands of crude rockets and mortars at southern Israel
that have killed 12 people in the past four years.
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--
Linda
*http://freedetainees.org <http://freedetainees.org/>
"If we shadows have offended, Think but this,
and all is mended, That you have but slumber'd
here While these visions did appear..."
- William Shakespeare
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