Last week, a report surfaced in Ha'aretz, one of Israel's leading newspapers, about allegations that Israeli soldiers wantonly killed Palestinian civilians during the Gaza War. The Associated Press picked up those stories and filed a story. Here's an excerpt:
The accounts, published in two Israeli newspapers last week, further fueled international outrage over the Gaza offensive. Israel, which invaded Gaza to end years of rocket attacks by Hamas militants on Israeli towns, is already under international scrutiny about whether it used disproportionate force and failed to protect civilians. Gaza's Hamas rulers have been criticized for targeting civilian areas and using Palestinians as human shields.
Senior military officials have acknowledged using massive firepower in Gaza to deter Hamas gunmen and prevent casualties among Israeli forces. The offensive was unprecedented in its deadliness, and contrasted with the smaller, pinpoint operations of the past in Gaza.
However, an Israeli army spokeswoman, Maj. Avital Leibovich, said the military "took every measure of prevention possible in order to save the lives of Palestinian civilians," including phone calls and leaflets warning residents to evacuate. Some of the incidents described by soldiers are under investigation. The army chief, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, said this week that, if true, they were an aberration, not the norm.
In the most explosive testimony, a soldier, identified only as Ram, said a sniper in his area killed a Palestinian woman and her two children after they misunderstood orders and walked in the wrong direction, entering a no-go zone. Another soldier, Aviv, described a sniper killing an elderly woman as she walked in the street, though his account was based on hearsay.
Both soldiers were from the Givati Brigade, which during the war was deployed in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City. They were not identified to protect their privacy.
However, CAMERA (Committe for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) filed a rebuttal to Ha'aretz's original story called, "Charges of IDF 'Wanton Killing' Crumble." It reported the following:
"The brigade commander of the unit linked to alleged "wanton killings" in Gaza launched his own investigation after hearing of the charges, speaking with actual eyewitnesses, all of whom said that the alleged killings did not take place. The original charges, based only on hearsay and rumors, have therefore been refuted and should be retracted.
The brigade commander's findings were reported in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, in a story titled, IDF Investigation Refutes the Testimonies About Gaza Killings. According to the story (translated by CAMERA):
Two central incidents that came up in the testimony, which Danny Zamir, the head of the Rabin pre-military academy presented to Chief of Staff Gaby Ashkenazi, focus on one infantry brigade. The brigade's commander today will present to Brigadier General Eyal Eisenberg, commander of the Gaza division, the findings of his personal investigation about the matter which he undertook in the last few days, and after approval, he will present his findings to the head of the Southern Command, Major General Yoav Gallant.
Regarding the incident in which it was claimed that a sniper fired at a Palestinian woman and her two daughters, the brigade commander's investigation cites the sniper: "I saw the woman and her daughters and I shot warning shots. The section commander came up to the roof and shouted at me, 'Why did you shoot at them?' I explained that I did not shoot at them, but I fired warning shots."
Officers from the brigade surmise that fighters that stayed in the bottom floor of the Palestinian house thought that he hit them, and from here the rumor that a sniper killed a mother and her two daughters spread.
The other alleged incident, the killing by a sniper of an elderly woman, also seems not to have taken place:
Regarding the second incident, in which it was claimed that soldiers went up to the roof to entertain themselves with firing and killed an elderly Palestinian woman, the brigade commander investigation found that there was no such incident.
It seems the both Ha'aretz and the New York Times, which gave these stories great play despite a clear lack of evidence, should be composing forthright corrections - preferably to be run on the front page."
The IDF is currently conducting a criminal investigation into the allegations and told CBN News the results should be released soon.