The media campaign launched last week by the Hebrew language Haaretz newspaper continued Saturday with a “documentary” by Channel 10 Television that tried to present the soldiers’ statements of generally accepted tactics in self-defense as immoral.
The program quoted a commander as saying, “If there's someone suspicious on the upper floor of a house, we'll shell it. If we have suspicions about a house, we'll take it down."
During the three-week Operation 'Cast Lead' campaign against the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, soldiers were confronted with dozens of booby-trapped buildings, and one blast caused serious injuries to several combatants.
The commander also told his troops, “There will be no hesitation. If it is us or them, it will be them. If someone approaches us unarmed, shoot in the air. If he keeps going, that man is dead. Nobody will deliberate - let the mistakes be over their lives, not ours."
The commander’s orders are a normal policy in war, when a split second error can result in death to soldiers.
Haaretz last week reported one incident in which soldiers fired on a woman and her children when they fled in a direction opposite to which the soldiers ordered. Reserve colonel Moshe Hager responded that an investigation must be carried out to determine if there was a misunderstanding, but he ruled out the possibility that the soldiers intentionally shot the civilians.
He pointed out that five Israeli soldiers paid the price of life for “friendly fire” that resulted from the misunderstanding of an order.