Eine Militäroperation, bei der solche Dinge geschehen, bringt einen moralischen Verfall der israelischen Streitkräfte zum Vorschein. Kein Wunder, jahrzehntelange Besatzung korrumpiert jede Armee. Sie ist nicht durchzuhalten, ohne die andere Seite zu enthumanisieren. Und das schlägt dann natürlich auch zurück.
In Israel wird dergleichen – weil es eine offene Gesellschaft ist – immerhin öffentlich. Der Gaza-Krieg hat nicht nur Trümmer und Tote auf der Seite der Araber hinterlassen. Auch auf der israelischen Seite sind Zerstörungen zu besichtigen.
Aus Ha’aretz:
„The platoon commander let the family go and told them to go to the right. One mother and her two children didn’t understand and went to the left, but they forgot to tell the sharpshooter on the roof they had let them go and it was okay, and he should hold his fire and he … he did what he was supposed to, like he was following his orders.“According to the squad leader: „The sharpshooter saw a woman and children approaching him, closer than the lines he was told no one should pass. He shot them straight away. In any case, what happened is that in the end he killed them.
„I don’t think he felt too bad about it, because after all, as far as he was concerned, he did his job according to the orders he was given. And the atmosphere in general, from what I understood from most of my men who I talked to … I don’t know how to describe it …. The lives of Palestinians, let’s say, is something very, very less important than the lives of our soldiers. So as far as they are concerned they can justify it that way,“ he said.
Another squad leader from the same brigade told of an incident where the company commander ordered that an elderly Palestinian woman be shot and killed; she was walking on a road about 100 meters from a house the company had commandeered.
The squad leader said he argued with his commander over the permissive rules of engagement that allowed the clearing out of houses by shooting without warning the residents beforehand. After the orders were changed, the squad leader’s soldiers complained that „we should kill everyone there [in the center of Gaza]. Everyone there is a terrorist.“