From a distance of 70m and through the sight of his machine gun, Assaf could tell that the Palestinian man was aged between 20 and 30, unarmed and trying to get away from an Israeli tank. But the details didn’t matter much, because Assaf’s orders were to ‘fire at anything that moved”.
Assaf, a soldier in the Israeli army, pressed the trigger. ‘He ran and I started shooting … He fell. I was a machine. I fire. I leave and that’s that. We never spoke about it afterwards.”
It was the summer of 2002, and Assaf and his armoured unit had been ordered to enter the Gaza town of Dir al Balah following the firing of mortars into nearby Jewish settlements. His orders were, he told The Guardian, ”every person you see on the street, kill him’. And we would just do it.”
It was not the first time that Assaf had killed an innocent person in Gaza while following orders, but after his discharge he began to think about the things he did. ‘I want the army to think about what they are asking us to do, shooting unarmed people. I don’t think it’s legal.”
Assaf is not alone. In recent months dozens of soldiers have come forward to share their stories of how they were ordered to shoot to kill unarmed people without fear of reprimand.
The soldiers were brought into contact with The Guardian with the assistance of Breaking the Silence, a pressure group of former soldiers who want the Israeli public to confront the reality of army activities.
Although those speaking out are a tiny proportion, their testimonies reflect a widespread culture of impunity, according to Sarit Michaeli of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.
‘During the first intifada, there were printed rules of engagement. In the second there are none and what rules exist are kept secret. This leaves a wide scope for interpretation for officers and soldiers,” she said.
According to B’Tselem, 3 269 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces in almost five years. About 1 700 are believed to have been civilians and 654 minors.
According to the army, over the same period it has investigated 131 cases of soldiers misusing firearms, resulting in 18 indictments and seven convictions. As a result of the testimonies received by The Guardian and Breaking the Silence, army prosecutors are looking at a further 17 cases of alleged criminal activity.
The death toll, the testimony of the soldiers and the small number of convictions appear to contradict the Israeli army’s stated aims. ‘Soldiers will not use their weapons and force to harm human beings who are not combatants or prisoners of war, and will do all in their power to avoid causing harm to their lives, bodies, dignity and property,” the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) website says. ‘IDF soldiers will be meticulous in giving only lawful orders and shall refrain from obeying blatantly illegal orders.”
Despite his qualms about legality, Assaf says he would carry out the same orders when he returns to reserve duty.
Another soldier, Moshe, told The Guardian that as part of his sergeant’s training course, he and his fellow trainees were ordered to set up ambushes in Jenin in May 2003. He said there was ‘pressure to get kills”.
Before the operation, the soldiers were briefed that they were on the lookout for armed men. But their targets also included children who habitually climbed on armoured personnel carriers (APCs). On a few occasions, machine guns had been stolen from APCs.
‘We were expressly told that we were just waiting for someone to climb on an APC, and ordered to shoot to kill,” said Moshe. ‘After a day or two, a 12-year-old climbed on one of the APCs … one of our sharpshooters killed him.”
After Moshe returned to his paratroop unit, he said there were several incidents when children were killed after bullets aimed at their legs hit their chests. The attitude was, he said, ‘so kids got killed. For a soldier it means nothing. An officer can get a 100 [$22] or 200 shekel fine for such a thing.”
A common theme in the soldiers’ testimony was the desire to avenge Israeli casualties and inflict collective punishment on Palestinians.
May last year was a bad month for the Israeli army in Gaza. Four soldiers were blown to pieces when their APC hit a roadside bomb in Gaza City. As the army took over, another seven soldiers were killed in a similar incident in Rafah. In response, the army launched an operation ‘to secure the neighbourhood along the Philadelphi Road [the border between Gaza and Egypt] and to make sure they are clean from terrorists,” said Major General Dan Harel, the local commander.
Thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homes, and about 50 died, of whom between a quarter and a half were civilians. According to Rafi, an officer in the Sheldag, an elite unit connected to the air force, the mission was about revenge. ‘The commanders said kill as many people as possible,†he said.
Asma Mughager (16) and her 13-year-old brother Ahmed were shot as they went to collect clothes from a rooftop washing line. The Israeli army insisted the children had been blown up by a roadside bomb. However, journalists visiting the morgue saw only single bullet wounds to the head. The truth, said Rafi, is that they were shot by an Israeli soldier following clear orders to shoot anyone on a roof regardless of their role in the conflict. ‘Gaza was considered a playground for sharpshooters.”
All the soldiers, with the exception of Assaf, were shocked by their experiences but uncertain of how to act. ‘The belief in the ethics of the Israeli army is so fundamental to Israeli society,” said Rafi. ‘People do not want to hear the reality.” —