Imam al Hams 13, killed Oct 5 2004
Ahmed
Mousa 10
Israeli Anarchist Against the Wall activist Jonathan Pollack on the murder of ten year old Ahmed Mousa: His head was pretty much blown
off.
There was an entry wound in his forehead that
completely
destroyed his face, and the back of his head was just missing. His brain was not there.
The exit wound just blew off the majority of the back of his head
...
We remember when 13-year-old Iman al-Hams in Gaza was killed a few years ago, 20 bullets pumped into her body, and the commanding officer who emptied his clip into her head and torso was not only not punished, but he was actually promoted.
What does this say about the Israeli military policy toward shooting children and then "investigating" their deaths?.
Following an Israeli
"investigation" into the death of Ahmed, the Border Policeman concerned was sentenced to one week's house arrest.
Nilin will lose approximately 2500 dunums of agricultural land when the construction of the Wall is completed. Nilin consisted of 57,000 dunums in 1948, reduced to 33,000 dunums in 1967,
currently is 10,000 dunums and will be 7,500 dunums after construction of the Wall.
Iman al Hams
Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported that the Israeli High Court of Justice instructed the military police and prosecution to probe whether ‘open fire’ order was given illegally at the Girit
military outpost in Gaza when 13-year-old Palestinian girl was killed by Israeli army gunfire two years ago.
The petition was filed by the parents of Iman and the Public Committee Against Torture.
Al Hamas was shot by some 25 rounds of live ammunition, and soldiers conducted the “confirm kill” shooting procedure after he fell dead on the ground.
She was heading back home from school, and wearing her school uniform when she was repeatedly shot.
Haaretz added that a verdict handed down by the High Court of Justice and was released for publication Sunday instructs military police to open a criminal investigation into the circumstances of
the death of Iman al Hams.
Following the shooting, captain R was arrested, but later on he was cleared of responsibility for her death.
The family of Al Hams demanded Israeli to probe the killing in order to determine whether the open fire on the school-girl was illegal given.
Supreme Court Justice, Edmond Levi, wrote in his verdict that the death of Al Hamas could have been prevented if all procedures were followed.
Three judges presided over the hearing; Aharon Barak, Saleem Jubran and Edmond Levi, Haaretz added.
Moreover, the court decided that the military police and the chief military prosecutor should investigate whether the order deviated from the army’s official regulation.
The court hearing did not touch the issue of the identity of the soldier who killed the child, Haaretz said.
Haaretz also said that the court rejected an a petition that the soldiers involved in the killing be investigated for carrying out illegal orders.
Last year, Captain R was acquitted from all charges and was declared innocent”, and the cour decided to pay for him an amount of 82.000 in compensation for defense expenses and days he spent in
custody.
Some of the questions remained unclear, the judges wrote in their decision; “why was the girl walking in that area? How did the guard think she poses threat to them? How could the girl present a
threat to their lives?”.
Doctors said Iman al-Hams was hit by about 20 bullets
Israel's top military prosecutor is investigating an army commander accused of repeatedly firing at the lifeless body of a young Palestinian girl.
Soldiers said they pleaded with the officer to stop as he sprayed Iman al-Hams, 13, with automatic gunfire.
She had been shot by Israeli soldiers after straying into a restricted area near Gaza's border with Egypt.
Hundreds of Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli troops during the Palestinian uprising or intifada.
It is unusual for the army to launch an investigation into the circumstances of such incidents.
But the death of Iman al-Hams is different because soldiers have complained publicly about the behaviour of their commander - who has not been named.
Close range
Without revealing their identities, soldiers from the Givati brigade platoon told Israeli television how Iman al-Hams had been shot on 5 October in the Tel Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah.
"We saw her from a distance of 70 metres. She was fired at ... from the outpost. She fled and was wounded," a soldier said.
While Iman was lying, wounded or dead, about 70m from the Israeli guard post, the platoon commander approached her and fired two bullets from close range at her head, the soldiers said.
He then went back a second time, put his weapon on the automatic setting and - ignoring their objections on the walkie-talkie - emptied his entire magazine into her body.
"We couldn't believe what he had done. Our hearts ached for her. Just a 13-year-old girl," one soldier said.
"How do you spray a girl from close range? He was hot for a long time to take out terrorists and shot the girl to relieve pressure," the soldier added.
It is not clear from reports whether the investigation will focus on the initial shooting of Iman al-Hams or the officer's subsequent behaviour.
"Confirming the kill" - as Israeli troops call shooting combatants at close range to make sure they are dead - goes against Israeli military regulations governing the rules of engagement, Haaretz newspaper reported.
Palestinian witnesses say it was more than an hour before the Israeli troops would let medics get to the body in an ambulance.
Sniper fire
Initially the Israeli army had said Iman al-Hams was shot because she was suspected of carrying a bomb to the army outpost.
It was reported that the Israeli troops had initially thought her satchel contained explosives - although it was found only to contain school books.
Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Moshe Ayalon defended his troops on Sunday, telling the Israeli cabinet that Iman al-Hams had been sent towards the outpost to draw out the soldiers so that Palestinian snipers could fire at them.
Her brother Ihab al-Hams angrily brushed off news of the investigation.
"Will this bring her back to life? Will this bring her back home? Will this heal our wound?" he told reporters.
"They are murderers and they killed her in cold blood."
Israel's army has occupied the Gaza Strip since 1967. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants to pull troops and settlers out of the territory, while retaining full control of its borders, coastline and airspace.
11 oct 2004
The Southern Command military court acquitted Tuesday of all charges an IDF captain who was accused of violating army rules by shooting at the body of 13-year-old Palestinian girl he feared was sent by terrorists.
The captain was charged of improper use of his weapon.
Following the ruling, the soldier burst into tears saying, "I'm happy and content."
"My account was the truth and I stuck to it from the beginning. I want to return and be a combat fighter…I hope that the IDF will learn its lessons from all the mistakes of this trial," he said.
The scandal broke out on October 5, 2004, when news surfaced that the IDF Captain, whose name cannot be revealed, had fired at the dead body of a Palestinian school girl to confirm her death.
On that day, soldiers spotted a figure entering a military zone near the Israel-Egypt border and shots were fired from a base on the Philadelphi route. The captain and a number of soldiers left the base to inspect the body, which appeared to belong to a female pupil carrying a school bag.
The case caused a firestorm when rumors had it that although the girl was dead when the soldiers reached the scene, the captain emptied a magazine on her body to confirm her death when he suspected that her bag was booby-trapped. An ensuing search revealed that the bag was filled with textbooks.
In an initial query into the incident the captain told military investigators that he did not intend to shoot the girl yet had to do so when Palestinian gunmen opened fire in his direction from empty houses in Rafah. Former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon accepted the captain's version of events and reinstated him to military duty.
In November 2004, the military prosecution decided to press charges against the suspect and accused him of improperly using his weapon.
The captain maintained his innocence, charging that he never performed a “confirmed kill” and accused his soldiers of deliberately wanting to hurt him for his stubborn attitude on duty.
In February 2005, a main witness decided to withdraw his initial testimony against the suspect, accusing soldiers in the base of providing false testimonies to harm the captain, whose strictness they disliked.
Unable to reach a conclusive verdict, a team of military judges visited the scene of the incident under heavy security and listened to the suspect's version of events. A review of a video tape recorded by the army on October 5, 2004, showed a suspicious figure in the area as the girl approached the base.
This missing link supported the captain's testimony that he feared the girl was sent by terrorists to draw IDF soldiers out of the base and carry out a shooting attack.
Tuesday's ruling brought an end a legal inquiry that lasted a year and drew unprecedented media attention and speculations.
However, it is estimated that the prosecution is planning to file an appeal.
The girl was shot 23 times in her body, until the soldier “made sure the threat was neutralized”, in spite that she was already hut by military fire.
The Israeli military prosecution accused Captain “R” of misusing their arms by emptying his magazine in the dead body of Iman Al Hams.
The prosecution also accused “R” of obstruction of court proceedings after asking his soldiers to alter testimonies they provided to military investigators probing the incident.
Israeli media sources reported that, Yoav Meni and Elad Eisenberg, the two lawyers representing “R”, managed to outline contradictions in the testimonies of the “witnesses”.
The witnesses are soldiers under the Captain of Captain “R” said that they lied during interrogation, and lied in
the sworn testimonies they supplied the court with in order to oust “R” from the division.
“R” denied that he conducted the “confirm kill” procedure from a short distance. His lawyer argued the “confirm kill” of the girl’s death is a known practice used by the Israeli army to
“eliminate threats”.
Defense attorneys also maintained that what appeared to be "confirmation" of the girl's death by R was, in fact, a known IDF practice employed to eliminate immediate threats.
Verdict in Al Hams “confirm kill” case pending Saed
Israeli military judges are set to rule, on Tuesday” whether the Israeli military captain who fired 23 live rounds at a Palestinians girl in Rafah last year, and conducted the “confirm kill”
procedure, is guilty or “innocent”. Lawyers of the defendant believe that he will be acquitted of all charges filed against him.
The scandal of the “confirm kill” case the soldiers carried out after killing Iman Al Hams, a 13-year-old school girl while she was heading to school October 5, 2004, broke out after the
soldiers, whose name cannot be revealed, had fired at the dead body of the Palestinian child, to make sure she is dead.
The case caused what was described as a “firestorm” when new news revealing that the girl was already dead when soldiers reached her, were leaked; The Israeli military captain empties his
magazine on her body “to confirm her death”.
The commander claimed that he though “her school bag” was booby-trapped, an ensuing search in her bag revealed that it was filled with books as the girl was heading to school.
The soldier claimed that he did not intend to shoot the girl, but “resistance fighters opened fire from an empty house”, he claimed. Investigation revealed that soldiers in the military post
where not subjected to gunfire.
November 2004, military prosecution decided to press charges against the soldier, and accused him of “improperly” using his gun”.
The commander claimed “innocence”, and charged that he did not perform the confirm kill; he accused soldiers under his command of deliberately wanting to hurt him for his stubborn attitude on
duty, Israeli online daily Ynetnews reported.
A main witness in the case withdraw his initial testimony against the suspect in February 2005, and accused soldiers in the “Girit” military base of providing false testimony to harm the
captain.
Today’s ruling will be considered the end of legal inquiry in the case which lasted a year.
Israeli media sources believe that even if the commander was acquitted, the case will not end, and that the prosecution is planning to file an appeal.
“Confirm kill” case of a Palestinian child resurfaces
Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies - Monday, 01 August 2005
Druze captain “R”, Israeli military commander charged with the confirmed kill scandal of the 13 years old girl, Iman al-Hams, in Rafah, October 2004, is expected to testify in front of an Israeli
military court in the southern command.
The Israeli newspaper Maariv said that Captain “R” intends to testify that he did not conduct the ‘confirm kill’ procedure by firing more rounds at the body of al-Hams, who was shot by more than
23 live rounds, near the Girit military outpost in Rafah.
Meanwhile, in November 22, 2004, captain “R” admitted to the confirm case.
The Israeli online daily Haaretz reported after the case was leaked that the Israeli Military Prosecutor filed charges against “R”, explaining that the soldiers at a monitoring checkpoint
observed a “suspicious” figure one hundred meters away from their post, fired at the ‘figure’ and sounded the alarm system.
After firing at the girl, captain “R”, left the post along with other soldiers and positioned themselves behind a sand hill near the post and fired again at the girl, then “R” and another soldier
decided to approach the girl, who was already dead, and pointed his M16 automatic rife at her body and fired at least 14 rounds until his magazine was over.
Following is the transcript that was leaked and reveals the radio transmission between troops and their commander; this transcript was published by Israeli media.
“we identified an Arab female 100m from the gate of the outpost”
“what did you see?”
“Root, we saw one on "two legs" 100m away from the post.”
“Sfard, can you see her?”
“positive, a little girl running, the target is moving to the east.”
“define the position.”
“north of Morshah”
“position not correct”
“she is now behind the digger, she is dying of fear, shots passed few centimeters from her.”
“they are shooting at her; our soldiers are 70m away from her.”
“I believe one of our posts ‘brought her down'”
“what? Did you see that she was hit? did she fell down?”
“yes, and she is not moving.”
“received.”
“I and Jefro are moving forward to confirm the killing, cover for us. The situation is as follows: we conducted orders and fired at her, she wears jeans, a T-shirt, and a head cover. Killing
confirmed.”
“received”
“any thing that moves in this domain, even if a three years old should be killed.”
Confirm kill casts Shadow over military police investigations
Saed Bannoura, IMEMC & Agencies - Tuesday, 22 March 2005
Trial of captain R, the Israeli military commander charged of the confirmed kill scandal of the 13 years old girl, Iman Al-Hams, has surfaced again as the military trial continued in a small
Israeli courtroom in the Southern Command headquarters.
So far the court is trying to reveal how far the military probe has reached and implications of the investigation.
The trial is focusing on an investigation carried out by the Israeli military police, Judge Advocate Generals are also probing the behavior of Captain ‘R' who conducted the ‘confirm kill'
shooting.
After the killing of Al-Hams, the lawyers of ‘R' Elad Eisenberg and Yoav Meni tried to focus of the system itself and the rules of engagement used by the army.
“Instead of putting ‘R' on trial, the whole system go on trial, the whole system which allowed the army to conduct lethal action in Gaza leading to the death of dozens of innocent civilians”, the
Israeli online daily Haaretz reported.
Military sources claimed that soldiers in ‘R' company tried to ‘settle accounts' with the commander who is known as ‘disciplinarian' by complaining on “what he did” and that one of the officers
failed to see the girl approaching, while he was in the observation tower.
As the Israeli army tries to save ‘its reputation' over the killing of the girl, the military police tries to cross examine on acts of conducts and military orders.
Defense attorney Eisenberg, wanted an admission that ‘T' was manipulated by his superior commanders in order to incriminate ‘R', but commander ‘T', according to Haaretz ‘stood firm and did not
provide the incrimination”.
‘T' admitted that he did not examine the possibility that soldiers who were in the observation tower had any reason to frame their commander, he also admitted to never examining the bad
relationship between the captain and the brigade members, Haaretz reported.
The defense is focusing on whether the soldiers had failed in fulfilling their duties and what was described as ‘the use of children by terror organizations'.
‘T' admitted that he never compared the transcripts to the actual tapes of transmission between troops and their commander concerning the confirm kill of the girl.
The defense found dozens of inaccuracies in the transcript of the radio transmission, among them when a soldier said 100 meters, while the transcript wrote 10 meters.
One of the main complaints in this case is the military failure to investigate cases of death of Palestinian civilians.
The case of Al-Hams did not carry any criminal proceedings because the investigators themselves were involved in the shooting which lead to the death of the girl, Israeli military source
reported. “The unprofessional transcripts of the ‘Girit' outpost found on every page of the transcript, casts a shadow over the military Police”, Haaretz reported.
Yet, the case of Al-Hams and the military commanders handling it raised serious questions on whether the Israeli Military Police can continue with its current format having 21-years-old
conducting ‘what could turn into murder investigations', according to Haaretz.
A rare glimpse of the Israeli military while it targeted and killed a Palestinian child in a restricted area in the Gaza Strip is touching off anger, embarrassing the army, and reinforcing questions about military practices in the occupied territories.
After four years of fighting, shocking incidents on both sides have lost their shock value. But this time, what might otherwise have been a mere statistic in the death toll is erupting into a fiasco, including a call by a leading military analyst for the ouster of the army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, for allegedly playing a role in whitewashing the incident.
The killing of Iman al-Homs, 13, was graphically brought into living rooms Tuesday night on Israel's Channel Two television, complete with a recording of internal communications as a group of soldiers identified her as a child, shot her, and their commanding officer "verified" her killing with more shots. Iman, a short, slight girl wearing a school uniform and carrying a schoolbag, had entered an off-limits area and was spotted about 100 yards away from an Israeli position during the Oct. 5 incident in Rafah, Gaza Strip.
After the "verification," the company commander, identified only as Captain R., sums up by telling his soldiers: "Anyone that moves in the zone, even if it is a 3-year-old boy, should be killed."
What started out as a controversy over whether or not Captain R. emptied his magazine into Iman after her death, as some of his soldiers charge, has now taken on wider significance and raised troubling questions about the moral standards of the Israeli military, say critics. While the army is saying the incident is "exceptional," critics say it reflects norms in which killing of Palestinian noncombatants is accepted and not seriously investigated.
"Disregard for human life and being trigger-happy is not exceptional at all," says Nimrod Amzalak, a staffer at B'tselem, an Israeli human rights organization. "The exceptional part here is that it was documented."
Army spokeswoman Maj. Sharon Finegold says the incident "does not reflect the norms, values, and conduct of Israel Defense Force soldiers." She adds that it took place "during combat activities in the most violent place during the past four years." Major Finegold says: "The soldiers felt they were under immediate threat. We still don't have an answer as to what the girl was doing there."
She says that in some instances, Palestinian fighters have used children as decoys to distract the Israeli army and in other cases to test how close one can get to a position without being shot. Finegold dismisses the charge of laxity about civilian deaths. "Every death of an innocent is investigated, and unethical behavior is punished," she says.
The controversy is erupting just a week after an Israeli tank killed three Egyptian policemen on the Egyptian side of Rafah, with the army saying they were mistaken for Palestinian fighters.
Among the questions analysts say are raised by the recording: Why did soldiers, after identifying Iman as a child, shoot her or not object to her being shot? Why was she shot at such a great distance? Why did General Yaalon endorse a flawed investigation that exonerated Captain R., and what does that imply about other investigations he says he personally conducts when civilians are killed?
At one point in the recording, after establishing that Iman is "a girl about 10 years old," the lookout soldier says: "She is behind the trench, and she is scared to death. The [bullet] hits were right next to her, centimeters away."
Another soldier then describes how "our forces are attacking her" and the lookout says: "One of the positions has taken her down."
Captain R. says: "We operated on her. Yes, it seems she has been hit." Captain R. later adds that he "verified" the killing.
Captain R. was indicted on Tuesday in a military court for "illegal use of weaponry" after complaints by soldiers about his behavior published in a newspaper triggered a military police probe separate from that of Yaalon. The charge sheet alleges that R. approached Iman, who had already been struck by gunfire, and fired two bullets into her. Then he switched his gun to automatic and emptied his clip into her, it says. R's lawyer says he is innocent.
But the episode is not just about R., but about the Israeli army as a whole, wrote analyst Ofer Shelah in Yediot Ahronot, a newspaper.
"The Israel Defense Forces are revealed in this story as a group of defeated gangsters in the field and as whitewashers and tricksters in the [army headquarters]," he wrote. "The commanders, from the company commander who emptied his magazine into the girl's body to the chief of staff who endorsed an investigation that said the company commander 'did not discern who was shooting at him and therefore fired on the ground,' are not worthy of continuing in their jobs."
Menachem Klein, a political scientist at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, says of the soldiers' communications during the incident: "This is the banality of a war crime. They know she is a girl, but they assassinate her. It's very banal, very dry, like they are talking about a tank. They identify the target, but they don't acknowledge the individual, they don't see the face. These are automatons."
Yaalon Wednesday conceded that the investigation he had overseen "was a grave failure in arriving at the full truth," but he rejected calls to place some army investigations into the hands of civilian bodies.
He added in remarks quoted by Y-net news service that the killing of Iman involves "failures in values."
"I don't think we should exaggerate the problem," he added. "It exists, but we know how to handle it."
22 nov 2004
Israeli officer charged over slain Gaza girl
Israel has charged an army captain who was accused of riddling a Palestinian girl's body with bullets after she was already dead.
A military spokesperson said the officer was charged Tuesday with two counts of illegally using his weapon, and one count each of obstruction of justice, conduct unbecoming an officer and improper use of authority.
The officer, who has not been identified, has been suspended.
Israeli troops shot the 13-year-old girl, Iyman Hams, on Oct. 5 as she walked toward a military observation post close to the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
The soldiers said they thought she was planting a bomb, but her family maintained she was on her way to school.
Soldiers later said their commander then walked over to the girl and shot her repeatedly as she lay on the ground.
It's not known if the girl was already dead. Palestinian hospital officials say she was shot at least 15 times.
It isn't clear how much jail time the captain could face if convicted.
The case reignited claims by human-rights groups and Palestinians that Israeli troops are unnecessarily violent in the West Bank and Gaza.
The Israeli army has cleared an officer accused of repeatedly firing into the lifeless body of a young Palestinian girl of "unethical" behaviour.
But the officer remains suspended for poor relations with subordinates.
An inquiry began after soldiers told the story of 13-year-old Iman al-Hams's death to the media, provoking an outcry among many Israelis.
Hundreds of Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli troops during the Palestinian uprising or intifada.
Shooting at the floor
The killing of Palestinian civilians does not always make much news in Israel. And it is unusual for the army to launch an investigation into the circumstances of such incidents, says the BBC's James Reynolds in Jerusalem.
Without revealing their identities, soldiers from the Givati brigade platoon told Israeli television how their officer sprayed Iman al-Hams with automatic gunfire on 5 October in the Tel Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah - a restricted area near Gaza's border with Egypt.
"We saw her from a distance of 70m. She was fired at ... from the outpost. She fled and was wounded," a soldier said.
While Iman was lying, wounded or dead, about 70m from the Israeli guard post, the platoon commander approached her and fired two bullets from close range at her head, the soldiers said.
He then went back a second time, put his weapon on the automatic setting and - ignoring their objections on the walkie-talkie - emptied his entire magazine into her body.
But the army says it accepts the commander's claim that he fired into the ground near the girl after coming under fire in a dangerous area.
It has not explained why the officer shot into the ground rather than at the source of the fire.
"The investigation did not find that the company or the company commander had acted unethically," an army statement said.
"The investigation concluded that the behaviour of the company commander from an ethical point of view does not warrant his removal from his position."
But the investigation criticised the officer's leadership abilities. "Due to these failures the company commander was suspended from his position, and his future career [in the army] will be decided upon in the course of the next week," the statement said. A separate military police investigation into the incident is continuing.