MIDDLE EAST: Israeli soldiers have been told they may open fire on Palestinians who are observing their movements in the Gaza Strip, if they believe their observers to be "terrorists", Israel army officials said yesterday.
The new open-fire orders were issued in the wake of the killing of three soldiers on October 24th at Netzarim, an isolated Jewish settlement adjacent to Gaza City, by gunmen from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, whose organisations had spent months prior to the attack monitoring Israeli military procedures in the area.
Ordinarily, Israeli troops are told they may open fire only when they believe their lives to be in danger, or if they spot armed Palestinians entering restricted areas and fear that they are about to carry out an attack. However, army officials confirmed yesterday that a Palestinian watching troops through binoculars may now be shot at by soldiers at Netzarim and other "major war-zones" in Gaza, if the troops consider him to be a terrorist, and added that soldiers followed well-defined criteria in determining who was a terrorist.
According to a report in the Ha'aretz newspaper yesterday, Israel's Association for Civil Rights has protested to the army's Judge Advocate General that the new orders are illegal, since they permit "killing people even if they constitute no apparent risk". Israeli officials yesterday rejected that assertion.
Ha'aretz reported that two Palestinians had in fact been killed on the basis of the new orders in the past few days: at Gaza's Kisufim and Sufa Junctions. In both cases, the paper said, it was subsequently ascertained that large explosive devices had been planted nearby, and that the observers were monitoring soldiers' activities in order to signal when the devices should be detonated to cause maximal carnage.
"The new orders permit firing only at a terrorist who is observing, not at anyone holding a pair of binoculars," Ha'aretz quoted a senior officer as saying.
The Israeli army also announced yesterday that it was easing restrictions on movement between several West Bank cities, in order to improve conditions for ordinary Palestinians. Eyewitnesses said most road-blocks and checkpoints still seemed to be in place, however, and the army said the process of removing them would be gradual.
Meanwhile, a growing number of Israeli and foreign journalists are protesting at new government rules for providing press cards, which include a vetting process by the Shin Bet domestic security service. Thousands of names of accredited journalists have already reportedly been passed to the Shin Bet. After current press cards expire at the end of the year, new cards will only be issued to applicants who have their personal details notarised, and pay a fee. Those details are then to be vetted by the Shin Bet.
The Israel Government Press Office has complained that too many press cards have been issued to people who are not genuine journalists.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is on Sunday to seek cabinet approval for a major prisoner exchange to be conducted in the next few weeks with the Lebanese Hizbullah, under which some 400 Palestinian prisoners are to be released in return for a captured Israeli businessman, Elhanan Tannenbaum, and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.