WORLD> Middle East
|
WORLD> Middle East
|
|
Interviews support Israeli army misconduct in Gaza
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-27 15:19 The second alleged killing, described by the soldier identified as Aviv, involved an elderly woman seen walking in the street. He said he was told that the company commander ordered troops onto the roof, along with snipers, "to take her down."
The soldiers said they had been warned to be wary of potential suicide bombers and that anyone approaching their posts could pose a danger. However, some soldiers said they rarely came under fire from Hamas gunmen.
She had been shot, according to Ghannam, but relatives acknowledged no one witnessed the shooting. The soldiers also described vandalism in Palestinian homes. Aviv said that before leaving, "we simply threw everything out of the window." Several homes visited by the AP this week still had graffiti in Hebrew scribbled on the walls. "Death to the Arabs," read one inscription in a house near where Mahdiyeh Ayyad's body was found. "The eternal people have no fear," read another. "Long live the Jewish people," was scrawled elsewhere, alongside Stars of David and four-letter English words describing Hamas and Gaza. Crude holes for snipers were covered with plastic sheeting or stuffed with cloth. At the Daloul family's apartment in Zeitoun, empty tuna and peanut cans, a pair of army boots, Dorito wrappers and other trash littered the floors. Clothes were strewn about, a large closet had been overturned and furniture was destroyed. "Rovait Tzabar, with our heart and soul," read graffiti scribbled on the wall, identifying a unit in the army's Givati Brigade. A commander of a reserve unit in Zeitoun, who would only identify himself as Maj. Idan, told the AP he ordered his soldiers not to deface property and reprimanded anyone who did. He said he made the soldiers clean up before leaving and left behind army rations for the family to use. The allegations of misconduct come amid growing calls for a UN war crimes investigation of both Israel and Hamas. International and Palestinian human rights groups have collected evidence of possible violations of the laws of war in Gaza, including a Human Rights Watch report Wednesday accusing Israel of using white phosphorous shells indiscriminately in populated areas. Reuven Pedatzur, an Israeli military analyst, said he believes civilians casualties are inevitable when an army fights in densely populated civilian areas. He said some of the criticism leveled against Israel is hypocritical. "The Americans are doing it in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. "They kill a lot of civilians. But when it comes to Israel, they say it's a war crime."
|
