Israeli Army not so clean after all

Israel soldiers speak out on Gaza
Israeli soldiers have described the use of "permissive" rules of engagement that cost civilian lives during the recent military campaign in Gaza. The troops said they had been urged to fire on any building or person that seemed suspicious and said civilians were sometimes used as human shields. Breaking the Silence, a campaign group made up of Israeli soldiers, gathered the anonymous accounts. Israel denies breaking the laws of war and dismissed the report as hearsay. Breaking the Silence described most of the testimonies of soldiers who took part in Operation Cast Lead as "sober, regretful and shocked". Many of the testimonies are in line with claims made by human-rights organisations that Israeli military action in Gaza was indiscriminate and disproportionate. According to testimonies from the 14 conscripts and 12 reserve soldiers:

• 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.
• Civilians were used as human shields, entering buildings ahead of soldiers
• Large swathes of homes and buildings were demolished. Accounts say that this was often done because the houses might be booby-trapped, or cover tunnels. Testimony mentioned a policy referred to as "the day after", whereby areas near the border where razed to make future military operations easier
• Many troops had a generally aggressive, ill-disciplined attitude
• There was widespread vandalism of property of Palestinians
• Soldiers firing at water tanks because they were bored, at a time of severe water shortages for Gazans
• White phosphorus was used in civilian areas gratuitously and recklessly
• Many of the soldiers said there had been very little direct engagement with Palestinian militants

And all this from the 'most moral Army in the world’ huh? At the time of Operation Cast Lead, the IDF claimed they acted impeccably and any suggestion of war crimes were mere propaganda. Really? I thought it looked more like a one sided massacre trying to rebuild the IDF’s reputation after the hiding they got from Hizbollah by killing 1400, mostly civilian, Palestinians by methods that are considered war crimes when anyone else does them.

My personal favourite is how the Israeli’s refuse to take part in the recent UN inquiry into war crimes committed last year. This denial would be hilarious except for the fact that Israel continues to add injury to injury, as the Red Cross recently pointed out, Israel continues its economic strangulation of Gaza denying the ability to rebuild from the devastation the IDF caused causing the Palestinians more misery (if that was at all possible).