[News] Israeli military decides that attack against Palestinian clinic in ‘revenge’ was acceptable

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://imemc.org/article/israeli-military-decides-that-order-to-attack-palestinian-clinic-in-revenge-was-acceptable/ 



  Israeli military decides that order to attack Palestinian clinic in
  ‘revenge’ was acceptable–

June 15, 2016

In a precedent-setting decision Tuesday, the Israeli military decided 
not to press charges against a senior officer who ordered his troops to 
bombard a hospital in Gaza in 2014 to reportedly “raise their morale” 
with a “revenge attack” after another officer was killed.

The officer, Lieutenant Colonel Neria Yeshurun, told military 
investigators that he was mad that he and the soldiers were unable to 
attend the funeral of an officer who was killed a few days before, so 
“we decided to fire a volley of shells toward the point from which he 
lost his life.”

According to the Israeli paper Ha’aretz, Major Amihai Harch, Yeshurun’s 
commander, said at the time, “The only unusual thing [Yeshurun] did was 
that he put the incident on top of the eulogy to Dima, the company 
commander who was killed. That was certainly to raise [morale]. And I 
say to you on the level of facts — that raised morale and encouraged the 
soldiers to continue the mission.”

These admissions were made directly to the military investigators in 
Yeshurun’s case, but were not deemed sufficient to place any charges on 
the officer.

Although Israeli military policy says that revenge attacks are not 
allowed, former soldiers have reported that they are common practice in 
Israeli military units.

The shelling of the clinic was part of a larger attack on the Sheja’eyya 
neighborhood in eastern Gaza, in which more than 120 Palestinian 
civilians were killed in a single night during the Israeli invasion of 
Gaza in 2014. The 50-day long invasion resulted in more than 1400 
Palestinians killed, including more than 400 children, and 91 Israelis, 
mainly soldiers killed during the invasion of Gaza.

The night of killings in Sheja’eyya became known to Palestinians as the 
Sheja’eyya massacre. Throughout the night, the shelling of the 
neighborhood was continuous, affecting every home – most of the 
neighborhood was completely destroyed, and many of those killed were 
crushed in the rubble of their own homes. Survivors ran through the 
streets carrying babies and children, desperate to escape the continuous 
Israeli assault.

The attack took place on July 31^st , 2014, just a day after the bombing 
of a school where families had taken refuge. About the attack on the 
school, UN Secretary General stated, “I condemn this attack in the 
strongest possible terms. It is outrageous. It is unjustifiable, and it 
demands accountability and justice. Nothing is more shameful than 
attacking sleeping children.” Since the time of the attack, there has 
been no accountability for the soldiers involved, and no charges.

Former Israeli soldier turned whistleblower Eran Efrati published 
accounts at the time, in August 2014 <http://imemc.org/article/68658/>, 
from soldiers in two different units reporting that their commanding 
officers had ordered them to carry out attacks against civilians in 
order to ‘revenge’ for soldiers who had been killed.

-- 
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