More Israeli war crimes

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday August 15, 2002 12:39 by MG

I spotted this article on the Press Association newswire. The author's name was not included. And before Ray goes for the jugular, I couldn't find any mention of the story on PA's website (www.ananova.com)... The story is pretty watered down by PA's refusal to use language critical of Israel, but the facts are intact.

Israeli soldiers strapped a bulletproof vest on a Palestinian teenager and ordered him to approach a house where a wheelchair-bound Hamas militant was hiding, with instructions to bring out the man and anyone else inside.

As he approached the house in the West Bank village of Tubas, Nidal Daraghmeh, 19, was shot dead, though it's not clear who pulled the trigger. The troops then flattened the house with bulldozers, burying a Hamas leader, the only person inside.

Last night's operation sparked a sharp debate in Israel over a tactic it has been using for years.

The army calls it the neighbour procedure. Critics say the army is using Palestinians as human shields.

Daraghmeh was one of dozens of residents in Tubas who were called out of their homes by soldiers who surrounded a home where they suspected Hamas militant Nasser Jerar was hiding, the army and Palestinian witnesses said.

The soldiers then chose Daraghmeh to approach the home, and told him to persuade everyone, including Jerar, to vacate it without a shootout.

But Daraghmeh never made it inside. As he approached the door he was shot in the head and killed.

The army says Jerar fired the shots, even though soldiers had announced on a megaphone that Daraghmeh was approaching the house. One Palestinian witness said it wasn't clear who fired the shots, others said they believed the soldiers killed Daraghmeh.

Soon after the shooting, two army bulldozers destroyed the house with Jerar inside, burying him.

Jerar had been planning a massive bombing at a high-rise building in central Israel, the army said. He had been confined to a wheelchair since last year, when he lost both legs and an arm when a bomb he was planting exploded prematurely.

In Israel, opposition leader Yossi Sarid said the use of Palestinian civilians in such situations could constitute ``war crimes.''

The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said that Daraghmeh, and other Palestinians before him, had been used as ``human shields.''

``It is not the duty of the Palestinian population to protect army soldiers,
but the army's,'' B'Tselem said. ``Whatever the circumstances, army soldiers may not endanger the lives of civilians to protect their own.''

The Israeli army has for years used the ``neighbour procedure'' in searches of Palestinian buildings, said Israeli cabinet minister Effie Eitam, a former army officer.

When looking for militants, soldiers often get neighbours to knock on doors of homes and persuade the suspects and any civilians to come out peacefully.

Sending a soldier to the door only increases the probability of violence, the army says.

``The idea is that a person is going in to warn people inside and explain the situation,'' said an army spokesman, Captain Jacob Dallal. ``It's done for the safety of everyone, especially those inside.''