Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that during Operation Cast Lead in December and January 2009, Israeli soldiers who took part have come forward and admitted killing unarmed Palestinian civilians in Gaza under lax rules of engagement. They also admitted intentionally destroying Gaza civilian property.
Dozens of Israeli soldiers, who are graduates of the Yitzhak Rabin pre-military preparatory course at Oranim Academic College in Tivon, were prepared to speak out about the atrocities they witnessed during the Gaza operation. Some are combat pilots and infantry soldiers. What they say contradicts IDF claims that Israeli troops “observe a high level of moral behavior” during operation Cast Lead.
The soldiers’ testimonies include one by an infantry squad leader where an IDF sniper “mistakenly” shot a Palestinian mother and her two children. “There was a house with a family inside …. We put them in a room. Later we left the house and another platoon entered it, and a few days after that there was an order to release the family. They had set up positions upstairs. There was a sniper position on the roof,” the soldier said and continued: “The platoon commander let the family go and told them to go to the right. One mother and her two children didn’t understand and went to the left, but they forgot to tell the sharpshooter on the roof they had let them go and it was okay, and he should hold his fire and he … he did what he was supposed to, like he was following his orders.”
According to the squad leader: “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. In any case, what happened is that in the end he killed them. 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 very, very less important than the lives of our soldiers. So as far as they are concerned they can justify it that way,” he said.
Another squad leader from the same brigade related that his company commander had ordered that an elderly Palestinian woman be shot and killed; she was walking on a road situated about 100 meters from a house the company had commandeered. The squad leader said he argued with his commander over the permissive rules of engagement that allowed the clearing out of houses by shooting without warning the residents beforehand. After the orders were changed, the squad leader’s soldiers complained: “we should kill everyone there in the center of Gaza. Everyone there is a terrorist.”
The squad leader said: “You do not get the impression from the officers that there is any logic to it, but they won’t say anything. To write ‘death to the Arabs’ on the walls, to take family pictures and spit on them, just because you can. I think this is the main thing: To understand how much the IDF has fallen in the realm of ethics, really. It’s what I’ll remember the most.”
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