B'tselem
Since the beginning of the al-Aqsa intifada, the IDF has opened only 90 Military Police investigations into Palestinians killed and injured, although soldiers have killed at least 1,694 Palestinians who did not take part in hostilities, including 536 minors. These investigations led to the filing of only 29 indictments. Only one soldier has been convicted of causing the death of a Palestinian. These statistics are not accidental. Rather, they are a result of the IDF’s 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.
Change in the open-fire regulations
With the outbreak of the present Intifada, the IDF has significantly changed the open-fire regulations that apply in the Occupied Territories,. The new regulations permit soldiers to shoot at Palestinians in non-combat situations in which soldiers are not in life-threatening danger. A prime example is the order given in the Gaza Strip to fire at any person who enters what are defined as “danger zones,” which include the areas near the military fence around Gaza, IDF posts, and settlements.
Since the beginning of the current intifada, the IDF has viewed the open-fire regulations applying in the Occupied Territories as “confidential.” The regulations are given to soldiers only during oral briefings, and not in the form of a written booklet, as they were in the previous intifada. The secrecy enables the senior command to avoid responsibility for the killing of innocent persons and leaves the soldiers in the field to bear the criticism. In addition, reliance on oral briefings to issue orders on the rules of engagement is likely to result in distortion, misunderstandings, and hidden messages.
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