Criticism of Israeli Army’s Killing of Civilians Comes From All Sides

The killing of Palestinian children and other civilians in a string of Israeli army operations unleashed unusual criticism Sunday of both the military tactics employed in Israel’s war with the Palestinians and the political strategy guiding them.

Israeli President Moshe Katsav wondered aloud if some of his nation’s troops had become “trigger-happy” after two incidents in four days prompted statements of regret from the army for the deaths of civilians.

“The question as to whether the [army] was trigger-happy must be examined,” Katsav said during a tour of an Israeli Arab elementary school on the first day of the school year. “If the army reaches the conclusion that this was the case, it will decide what to do.... But it would be hasty to draw conclusions now.”

Katsav’s post is largely ceremonial, but his comments--coming from a member of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s right-wing Likud Party--were significant.

Israel reoccupied the West Bank this year after a spate of suicide bombings that claimed the lives of dozens of Israelis. Tanks and troops control most Palestinian cities and enforce severe limitations on Palestinians’ ability to move about freely.

By at least one measure, Israeli tactics have been successful. Violence against Israelis has dropped off markedly, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Sunday. Nearly four weeks have passed without a suicide bombing, and no Israelis have been killed by Palestinians inside Israel’s borders in the same period.

Israel’s operations are at least partially responsible, according to Ben-Eliezer and a number of military analysts. The house arrest of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and the actual arrests of thousands more, plus the continued policy of hunting and killing militants, have hindered efforts by Palestinian groups to mount new attacks, the analysts say.

“The pressure that Israel is applying on the ground has led to fewer attempts to carry out attacks,” Ben-Eliezer told Sunday’s Cabinet meeting, adding, however, that “the situation on the ground is still not quiet.”

Another possible factor: Several key Palestinian figures, including the new interior minister, have urged radical factions to hold off attacks inside Israel for the time being, as Palestinians engage in a wider debate over the direction of the struggle for independence.

At least publicly, the Islamic movement Hamas--responsible for most suicide bombings--has made it clear it will not heed that call. It has rejected any cease-fire and threatened to exact revenge for recent killings by Israel. Still, there has not been a successful bombing since a Palestinian Hamas member killed nine people when he blew himself up on a bus in northern Israel on Aug. 4.

But in its pursuit of suspects, the Israeli army has become overzealous, Palestinians and some Israelis charged Sunday. In the weeks since Aug. 4, 40 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society; the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Sunday that about three-quarters of those were civilians.

The figure includes five people killed Saturday in the West Bank village of Tubas when Israeli combat helicopters fired missiles at a car containing men suspected of planning terrorist attacks. Instead of the intended target, two children and two teenagers were killed, as well as one low-level gunman. (Palestinian hospital officials Saturday identified the two teens as members of a militia. On Sunday, they said the two apparently were friends of a gunman but did not themselves appear on any Israeli wanted list.)

Ben-Eliezer on Sunday ordered an investigation into the Tubas airstrike. Few army-led investigations have resulted in the prosecution or punishment of soldiers or officers.

Early Sunday, four more unarmed Palestinians were killed by troops in disputed circumstances near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. The army said it was acting on information that an attack on a nearby Jewish settlement was imminent, but Palestinians said the men were killed in cold blood.

The four men were shot in an orchard run by Jewish settlers. The army said the men were attempting to infiltrate the settlement. Wire cutters and a saw were found on the bodies, but no guns, the army said.

Palestinians, however, said the men worked at the local quarry. A co-worker, Ishaq Halika, said he saw soldiers round up the four men and march them away. He heard screams, he said, and their bodies were found later.

On Thursday, an Israeli tank shell killed a Palestinian mother, her two grown sons and a cousin in the Gaza Strip. On July 23, Israeli warplanes dropped a 1-ton bomb on a Gaza City neighborhood, killing the leader of Hamas’ military wing and 14 other people, including nine children.

Palestinian officials said the Israeli actions were clearly aimed at derailing tentative steps toward ending the region’s deadliest violence in years. Many of the Israeli raids have occurred at times of relative quiet and when there were hints of progress in efforts to defuse tensions.

In recent weeks, Ben-Eliezer has met with senior Palestinian security officials, and the two sides reached an initial agreement for Israeli withdrawal from some parts of the West Bank and Gaza in exchange for Palestinian steps against suicide bombers.

But Sharon and the army undermine those contacts, Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed-Rabbo said Sunday, demanding an immediate halt to the talks in the aftermath of the new killings.

Nahum Barnea, the dean of Israel’s political columnists, used unusually harsh terms to accuse the army’s leadership of reckless arrogance in no longer taking care not to harm civilians, women and children. He said bellicose statements from the army’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, are eroding the army’s credibility and discipline.

“What is the use of heating things up by means of proactive military operations?” Barnea asked on the front page of Israel’s largest-circulation newspaper, Yediot Aharonot. “The Palestinians will respond with a wave of terror attacks, and in the midst of the blood bath we will never know whether they intended to end terrorism or not.”