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<font size=3><br><br>
Israeli army commander released<br>
</font><font size=2><i>By</i></font><font size=3> Laila El-Haddad in Gaza
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2250618E-C876-4AEC-BBCB-B4E5C9CF5D69.htm">http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2250618E-C876-4AEC-BBCB-B4E5C9CF5D69.htm<br>
</a></font><font size=3>Monday 07 February 2005, 5:19 Makka Time, 2:19
GMT <br>
<a href="??"><img src="cid:6.1.2.0.2.20050207055106.021aa378@66.103.156.66.9" width=190 height=151 alt="107acf.jpg"></a><br><br>
</font><font size=1><b>At least 644 Palestinian children have been killed
since 2000<br><br>
<br>
</b></font><font size=3>An Israeli military court has ordered the release
of the army commander responsible for shooting to death a young
Palestinian girl at point-blank range in the Gaza Strip last year,
according to the Israeli press. <br><br>
Thirteen-year-old Iman al-Hams's body was found riddled with over 17
bullets near an army post in the southern <?xml:namespace prefix = st1
ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Gaza
strip refugee camp of Rafah last October. <?xml:namespace prefix = o
ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><br><br>
<br><br>
The accused commander, identified only as Captain R, was released on
Sunday after being confined to an army base for two months.<br><br>
<br><br>
The Israeli army had initially said that Iman was shot because soldiers
feared she was carrying a bomb in her book bag as she approached an
occupation watchtower in a security zone that overlooks the refugee
camp.<br><br>
<br><br>
But a three-way radio exchange between the officers that was broadcast on
Israeli television in November made clear that the soldiers knew al-Hams
was a young girl that posed no threat. <br><br>
<br><br>
The soldiers in the recording immediately identified al-Hams as a girl of
"about 10" that was "scared to death". She was shot
in the legs nonetheless. <br><br>
<br><br>
Captain R then shot the wounded girl twice in the head, and
"confirmed the kill" by emptying his magazine into her limp
body.<br><br>
<br><br>
He then said he would have killed her "even if she was
three-years-old". <br><br>
<b>Minor charges<br><br>
</b>The tape also revealed that the soldiers knew Iman was headed
eastwards, away from the army post and back into the refugee camp, when
she was shot. <br><br>
Captain R faced only minor charges such as illegal use of his weapons and
conduct unbecoming of an officer. <br><br>
Iman's outraged parents have said they want him prosecuted for
murder.<br><br>
<img src="cid:6.1.2.0.2.20050207055106.021aa378@66.103.156.66.10" width=190 height=151 alt="107aee.jpg"><br><br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=1><b>Israeli rights groups say
soldiers<br>
are allowed to kill with impunity<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>The girl was one of 172 children killed in Gaza
in 2004 - and one of 644 killed since the start of al-Aqsa intifada in
September 2000, accounting for about 20% of Palestinian deaths.
<br><br>
But only one Israeli soldier has been found guilty of manslaughter,
although some1700 unarmed Palestinians have been killed since the start
of the intifada, according to the Israeli human rights group
B'tselem. <br><br>
That soldier received a punishment of four months in jail and a reduction
in rank. <br><br>
The Israeli rights group accuses the Israeli military of granting
impunity to occupation soldiers who kill Palestinian civilians by issuing
what they call "offensive sentences".<br><br>
The Israeli army, they say, has an "intolerable disregard for
Palestinian life, as reflected in the open-fire regulations which
encourage a trigger-happy attitude among soldiers, and its policy to
cover up and refrain from investigating the killing of
civilians".<br><br>
Of the thousands of cases of dead Palestinians, only 90 were investigated
by the military police, 29 of which were filed as indictments, resulting
in just one conviction. <br><br>
<b>Open-fire regulations<br><br>
</b> <br><br>
The group says that new open-fire regulations established at the start of
the intifada permit soldiers to shoot at Palestinians in non-combat, non
life-threatening situations, as they did Iman. <br><br>
<br><br>
<img src="cid:6.1.2.0.2.20050207055106.021aa378@66.103.156.66.11" width=190 height=151 alt="107afe.jpg"><br><br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=1><b>More than 170 Palestinian
children<br>
were killed in 2004 alone<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>The orders are given to the soldiers orally so
the senior command can escape responsibility in a trial situation, and so
the account of what happened will be obfuscated. <br><br>
<br><br>
At the same time, the Judge Advocate General (JAG) has decided to reduce
the number of military police investigations into the killing of
Palestinians.<br><br>
In an interview with Aljazeera.net last year given on the condition of
anonymity, an Israeli army reservist confirmed the accusations, saying
the leniency of the punishment and lax enforcement of the law, create a
situation in which Israeli military crimes go unpunished. <br><br>
"If there is a trial, it will be only the soldier and the battalion
commander. It's what they call 'discipline': The soldier hears out the
commander and says to him 'Okay, sure', then spends seven days in prison
and no one except the unit will know about it, including the
press."<br><br>
The source also spoke of a "code of silence" as well as other
unwritten laws and behavioural norms that prevail throughout the military
apparatus and aggravate the problem.<br><br>
"I don't trust the system. It's hard, even when an investigation is
open, to get to the truth," the officer said.<br><br>
Aljazeera<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2><a href="http://www.al-awdacal.org">http://www.al-awdacal.org<br>
</a><a href="http://www.al-awdasandiego.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.al-awdasandiego.org/<br><br>
</a></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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