Israeli Soldiers Question Moral Integrity of Gaza Offensive

Related subjects: Diplomacy & Politics, Middle East, Rights & Freedoms, Security & Surveillance, United Nations, Webb Tisch Comments (0)

15 July 2009 :: Webb Tisch

A group of former Israeli soldiers is questioning the methods used in the Gaza offensive carried out by the IDF on orders from then outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert. The group interviewed veterans of the Gaza offensive and has reported that serious abuses occurred and need to be further investigated and prosecuted. One soldier reportedly described a “moral Twilight Zone” in which any Palestinian could be viewed as a threat.

The Miami Herald is reporting:

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.

Soldiers spoke to the group Breaking the Silence, an organization founded by Israeli army reservists in 2004, with the aim of revealing the truth about operations that might run afoul of IDF official policy or Israeli or international law. Breaking the Silence decries “Cases of abuse towards Palestinians, looting, and destruction of property” as not legitimate military or security activities and demands ”accountability regarding Israel’s military actions in the Occupied territories perpetrated by us and in our name”.

Ha’aretz is reporting that a Golani brigade soldier testified that his superiors had said Palestinians were used as human shields in Gaza. The Breaking the Silence testimony says the strategy was called the “neighbor procedure”. It was also suggested Palestinians were routinely sent into homes in advance of the IDF in order to check if anyone was there. The Israeli newspaper reports that the same soldier gave a similar account to one of its reporters.

The Israeli Defense Force flatly denies the allegations, and says the human rights organization is relying on untested and unverified verbal accounts alone. An official statement from the IDF reads:

… the IDF regrets the fact that a human rights organization would again present to the country and the world a report containing anonymous, generalized testimony without checking the details or their reliability, and without giving the IDF, as a matter of minimal fairness, the opportunity to check the matters and respond to them before publication…

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and UN agencies have also alleged the destructive force used by the IDF against densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip was disproportionate and unjustified. There is an ongoing UN investigation into allegations of war crimes, including strikes that killed UN staff and targeted a school run by the UN.

On the newly reported testimony of IDF soldiers who served in Gaza, Reuters reports:

“Better hit an innocent than hesitate to target an enemy,” is 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.”

That soldier reportedly said the logic of urban warfare is that everyone is a threat and there are “no innocents”. A Palestinian group alleges 1,417 people were killed by the Israeli offensive, including 926 civilians. The IDF refutes these claims, saying 1,166 were killed, with only 295 of those deaths involving civilians. Israel also reports that 10 IDF soldiers were killed, along with 3 Israeli civilians.

The IDF strategy for Gaza saw the razing of entire streets in order to prevent dark corners of large structures being used as staging points for sniper-fire, ambushes and heavy artillery. The report on soldiers’ testimony says white phosphorous was indiscriminately used to target homes and streets, supporting allegations made by numerous rights groups and doctors that treated patients with the resulting burns.

Bulldozers and other heavy machinery, including explosives, were reportedly used to demolish entire sections of Gaza City, moves justified as militarily necessary, but which destroyed property on a massive scale, and had little apparent foundation in the laws of war. The group Breaking the Silence says “the existence of a moral society clearly requires a profound, honest discussion, of which the voice of soldiers on the ground is an inseparable part”.

The IDF denies that the laws of war were violated in any systematic way and says it is carrying out its own investigations. There have been calls from within Israel for an independent probe, but the government says the IDF has been thorough and has not found evidence of serious wrongdoing. International human rights groups remain skeptical and say there is substantial evidence of a wide range of abuses.

According to the BBC, the soldiers’ testimony suggests the “Rules of engagement were either unclear or encouraged soldiers to do their utmost to protect their own lives whether or not Palestinian civilians were harmed.” There were also reports of vandalism and of “Soldiers firing at water tanks because they were bored, at a time of severe water shortages for Gazans”.

Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, spokeswoman for the IDF, has said the new report is based on hearsay and that “The IDF expects every soldier to turn to the appropriate authorities with any allegation”. She specified: “This is even more important where the harm is to non-combatants. The IDF has uncompromising ethical values which continue to guide us in every mission.”