Huge rise recorded in number of houses IDF razes in arrest raids
A Haaretz inquiry reveals that the Israel Defense Forces has increased its use of home demolitions during West Bank arrest raids since a ban on the forced entry of Palestinian civilians into homes of barricaded fugitives.
When the High Court of Justice banned the “neighbor procedure” eight months ago, senior Israel Defense Forces officers warned that this would likely endanger soldiers’ lives. Haaretz has learned that new arrest procedures are not any more dangerous to soldiers, but that is because the IDF is using more aggressive tactics during the actual operations.
IDF sources say that the ban diminishes the tactical options of the officers. “The result is that very quickly we escalate in means, in other words, we use the bulldozers,” one officer says.
In early October 2005, the High Court justices accepted the petition of human rights organizations against the “neighbor procedure.” This tactic, employed hundreds of times in the territories during the first intifada, involved forcing the Palestinian neighbors of wanted militants to enter the homes of the barricaded fugitives in an effort to convince them to surrender, and consequently, also bring out information for the army on the conditions inside the home.
This forcing of Palestinian civilians to act as “agents” for the IDF drew intense public criticism, especially when a Palestinian from a village in the northern West Bank was shot and killed by his barricaded neighbor during the application of the “neighbor procedure.”
The High Court ban forced the army to adopt new arrest methods, which do not endanger soldiers’ lives as military sources had previously warned, says a senior IDF officer serving in the West Bank because “they take no chances. Not one of us will send a soldier to check a home in which it is known that a living, armed fugitive is barricaded, before we have carried out very aggressive action.”
It turns out that the end result of the decision is different from the original intention: both the army and human rights groups, who closely follow developments in the territories, agree that the risk to the lives of Palestinian civilians is greater today. Furthermore, the new procedures result in more extensive damage to Palestinian homes in the territories.
haaretz.com
Witnessing the Destruction of Gaza
On Tuesday, June 13, Israeli missile fire killed seven Palestinian civilians in Gaza City. Among the dead were two children. The strike follows an Israeli assault on a Gaza beach late last week which claimed the lives of seven family membersăincluding five children. In a report released on June 11, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights documented the killing of 14 Palestinians in a 24 hour period due to Israeli attacks. Since the start of the month, Israeli forces have killed more than 30 Palestinians. Apparently, “the most moral military in the world,” as Israeli leaders like to refer to it, has been slipping up lately.