Israelis fired on girl 'having identified her as a
10-year-old', military tape shows
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
24 November 2004

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=586044

Israeli soldiers continued firing at a Palestinian
girl killed in Gaza last month well after she had been
identified as a frightened child, a military
communications tape has revealed.

The tape is likely to be crucial in the prosecution
case against the men's company commander, who faces
five charges arising from the killing of Iman al-Hams,
13, in the southern border town of Rafah on 6 October.

It shows that troops firing with light weapons and
machine guns on a figure moving in a "no entry zone"
close to an army outpost near the border with Egypt
had swiftly discovered that she was a girl.

In the recorded exchanges someone in the operations
room asks: "Are we talking about a girl under the age
of 10?" The observation post, housed in a watchtower,
replies: "It's a little girl. She's running
defensively eastwards, a girl of about 10. She's
behind the embankment, scared to death."

Not until four minutes later was it reported that the
girl had been hit and had fallen. The observation post
reports: "Receive, I think that one of the positions
took her out." ... Operations room: "What, she fell?"
Observation post: "She's not moving right now."

The tape records the commander as telling his men,
after firing at the girl with an automatic weapon and
declaring he has "confirmed" the killing: "Anyone
who's mobile, moving in the zone, even if it's a
three-year-old, needs to be killed."

The tape, broadcast on Israel's Channel Two TV, gives
the most graphic account of the killing after which
soldiers in the company, part of the Givati Brigade,
complained that they had been "besmirched" by the
company commander's insistence on "confirming the
kill".

The army admitted shortly after the shooting near the
Girit outpost that it had been a mistake. The girl was
carrying a bag which the army said that the soldiers
had thought contained explosives, but which was found
to contain schoolbooks. Although the family is at a
loss to explain why she had wandered into a dangerous
prohibited zone, they say she was on her way to school
at the time.

The soldiers said that the commander had fired two
shots at the girl from close range as she lay on the
ground before withdrawing, turning and "emptying his
magazine" by firing some 10 bullets at her body.

This account is broadly confirmed by the terms of the
indictment issued this week. Although the family's
Israeli lawyer believes - and Palestinian witnesses
said last month - that she was wounded but alive when
the commander fired his first two shots, he has not
been charged with manslaughter, apparently on the
grounds that there is no evidence that the two bullets
killed the girl.

After the report that she has been hit, the tape
records the company commander as saying: "I and
another soldier ... are going in a little nearer,
forward, to confirm the kill ..." After a pause he
adds: "Receive a situation report - we fired and
killed her. She was wearing pants, jeans, an
undershirt, a shirt. Also, she was wearing a keffiyah
on her head. I also confirmed the kill. Over."

The charges include obstruction of justice because of
a false explanation - which was accepted by senior
commanders until soldiers came forward with their
version of events to the newspaper Yedhiot Ahronot -
that he came under fire from Palestinian gunmen 300
yards away as he approached the girl and shot at the
ground to deter the fire.

Because "confirmation of the killing" is not dealt
with under military regulations the commander - who
has been named only as Captain R - has been charged
with "illegal use of a weapon" and overstepping his
authority to the extent of jeopardising human life. He
has been remanded in custody.

The al-Hams family's lawyer, Leah Tsemel, said that
she was angered by what she said was the relative
lightness of the charges. "I believe that the
commanders and the soldiers who fired should all have
been charged with murder."

The family have declined an army request to exhume the
body for a post-mortem examination, because of the
pain it would cause relatives.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Israeli officer: I was right to shoot 13-year-old
child

Radio exchange contradicts army version of Gaza
killing

Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
Wednesday November 24, 2004
The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1358173,00.html

An Israeli army officer who repeatedly shot a
13-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza dismissed a
warning from another soldier that she was a child by
saying he would have killed her even if she was three
years old.
The officer, identified by the army only as Captain R,
was charged this week with illegal use of his weapon,
conduct unbecoming an officer and other relatively
minor infractions after emptying all 10 bullets from
his gun's magazine into Iman al-Hams when she walked
into a "security area" on the edge of Rafah refugee
camp last month.

A tape recording of radio exchanges between soldiers
involved in the incident, played on Israeli
television, contradicts the army's account of the
events and appears to show that the captain shot the
girl in cold blood.

The official account claimed that Iman was shot as she
walked towards an army post with her schoolbag because
soldiers feared she was carrying a bomb.

But the tape recording of the radio conversation
between soldiers at the scene reveals that, from the
beginning, she was identified as a child and at no
point was a bomb spoken about nor was she described as
a threat. Iman was also at least 100 yards from any
soldier.

Instead, the tape shows that the soldiers swiftly
identified her as a "girl of about 10" who was "scared
to death".

The tape also reveals that the soldiers said Iman was
headed eastwards, away from the army post and back
into the refugee camp, when she was shot.

At that point, Captain R took the unusual decision to
leave the post in pursuit of the girl. He shot her
dead and then "confirmed the kill" by emptying his
magazine into her body.

The tape recording is of a three-way conversation
between the army watchtower, the army post's
operations room and the captain, who was a company
commander.

The soldier in the watchtower radioed his colleagues
after he saw Iman: "It's a little girl. She's running
defensively eastward."

Operations room: "Are we talking about a girl under
the age of 10?"

Watchtower: "A girl of about 10, she's behind the
embankment, scared to death."

A few minutes later, Iman is shot in the leg from one
of the army posts.

The watchtower: "I think that one of the positions
took her out."

The company commander then moves in as Iman lies
wounded and helpless.

Captain R: "I and another soldier ... are going in a
little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill ...
Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her
... I also confirmed the kill. Over."

Witnesses described how the captain shot Iman twice in
the head, walked away, turned back and fired a stream
of bullets into her body. Doctors at Rafah's hospital
said she had been shot at least 17 times.

On the tape, the company commander then "clarifies"
why he killed Iman: "This is commander. Anything
that's mobile, that moves in the zone, even if it's a
three-year-old, needs to be killed. Over."

The army's original account of the killing said that
the soldiers only identified Iman as a child after she
was first shot. But the tape shows that they were
aware just how young the small, slight girl was before
any shots were fired.

The case came to light after soldiers under the
command of Captain R went to an Israeli newspaper to
accuse the army of covering up the circumstances of
the killing.

A subsequent investigation by the officer responsible
for the Gaza strip, Major General Dan Harel, concluded
that the captain had "not acted unethically".

However, the military police launched an
investigation, which resulted in charges against the
unit commander.

Iman's parents have accused the army of whitewashing
the affair by filing minor charges against Captain R.
They want him prosecuted for murder.

Record of a shooting

Watchtower
'It's a little girl. She's running defensively
eastward'
Operations room
'Are we talking about a girl under the age of 10?'
Watchtower
'A girl of about 10, she's behind the embankment,
scared to death'
Captain R (after killing the girl)
'Anything moving in the zone, even a three-year-old,
needs to be killed'







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