Gaza war lacked restraint, some Israeli troops say

By Douglas Hamilton

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel rejects charges by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and U.N. agencies that its January invasion of the Gaza Strip inflicted civilian death and destruction on an unjustifiable scale.

Now, some of the Israeli soldiers who took part say they were urged by commanders to shoot first and worry later about sorting out civilians from combatants. Accordingly, they say, the force went into Gaza with guns blazing.

In print and video testimony published on Wednesday by the activist group Breaking the Silence, the 30 soldiers say the Israeli army's imperative was to minimize its own casualties to ensure Israeli public support for the operation.

"Better hit an innocent than hesitate to target an enemy," is a typical description by one unidentified soldier of his understanding of instructions repeated at pre-invasion briefings and during the 22-day operation, from December 27 to January 18.

"If you're not sure, kill. Fire power was insane. We went in and the booms were just mad," says another. "The minute we got to our starting line, we simply began to fire at suspect places.

"In urban warfare, anyone is your enemy. No innocents."

Israel's Operation Cast Lead had the declared aim of forcing Islamist Hamas fighters to stop firing rockets at towns in southern Israel.

A Palestinian rights group says 1,417 people were killed, 926 of them civilians. The Israeli army put the death toll at 1,166 and estimated 295 dead were civilians. Israel said 10 of its soldiers and three civilians were killed.

Whole streets in parts of the Gaza Strip were razed to minimize the risk of Israeli casualties from small-arms attacks and booby-trap bombs. The United Nations says Gaza six months later is just beginning to clear 600,000 tons of rubble.

The Israeli military rejected criticism in the 112-page Breaking the Silence report as "based on hearsay." But it pledged in a statement to investigate any formal complaints of misconduct, saying its troops had respected international law during "complex and difficult fighting."

"MORAL ARMY"

Responding to the report, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement: "The IDF is one of the most moral armies in the world and behaves in accordance with the highest ethical code."

He said any organization with information critical of Israeli military actions "should bring it to me, as Israel's defense minister, and to the government that directed the IDF to restore peace and quiet to communities in the south."

Soldiers in Israel's largely conscript army have standing orders not to talk to the media. The report includes testimonies of 30 "who served in all sectors of the operation."

"The majority ... are still serving in their regular military units and turned to us in deep distress at the moral deterioration of the IDF (Israel Defense Force)," it says.