Shooting incapacitated alleged Palestinian attackers in the head is a common practice by Israeli occupation forces, settler security chief Eliyahu Liebman told a military court
The streets of Palestine are home to some of the world’s most deadly terrorists. Or at least, that’s what the Israeli government wants the world to believe. In fact, Israeli troops inside Palestine are trained to act like drug lords or mafia hitmen.
When a suspected terrorist activity occurs, the Israeli military forces react according to their training. Testimony from those who have witnessed these conflicts states that the training soldiers adhere to includes shooting at the heads of dead or injured Palestinians, who may or may not be suspected terrorists.
Shooting into the heads of dead Palestinians is a ‘security measure’ used by Israeli military as a way to make sure that the suspect is in fact dead, and therefore not going to detonate a suicide bomb they may be strapped with. Trouble is, these dead and injured often don’t get their round in the head until long after they’ve been laying on the ground or otherwise been incapacitated.
In a leaked video of a suspected terrorist attack, a Palestinian man, Abd al-Fattah al-Sharif, can be seen laying on the ground while paramedics tend to another’s wounds. The video shows at least 2 full minutes of al-Sharif on the ground before Israeli military approaches, and shoots him in the head. In fact, the soldiers waited for an ambulance and other soldiers to be out of the way before shooting. If you’re a terrorist hoping to detonate a bomb strapped to your chest, those two minutes are all you need.
“In terrorist incidents I witnessed, I saw with my own eyes that in every instance in which a terrorist attacked, soldiers shot him in the center of mass until he was neutralized … and [shot] a bullet to the head to ensure that the terrorist could not set off a suicide belt or continue the attack. These soldiers never went to court,” said Eliyahu Liebman, civilian security chief in Hebron, to a military court on Sunday.
Liebman’s testimony occurred in court as part of the hearing for Elor Azarya, an Israeli soldier charged with shooting the head of wounded Palestinian al-Sharif, killing him.
Abd al-Fattah al-Sharif and Ramzi al-Qasrawi were fatally wounded by Israeli forces after they allegedly tried to stab soldiers in the occupied city of Hebron last March. Videos of the scene shows the fatal shooting of al-Sharif.
If Israeli troops are really trying to prevent suicide bombs from injured Palestinian terrorists, the appropriate tactic is to shoot as soon as possible, and not give the suspect any time to regain consciousness and pull the trigger.
“A ‘neutralized terrorist’ means: either he attempted to carry out an attack and was shot in the chest and killed and then shot in the head to make sure – as is taught in the IDF [Israeli army] according to the rules of opening fire – or it means that the terrorist was checked by a sapper and was cuffed by the hands and feet,” Liebman told the military court.
Whatever the reason for this desecration of dead bodies, Palestinians certainly see it as one more atrocity committed by a terrorist nation. Since last year, the death toll of Palestinians is over 220, while Israeli forces report less than 40 casualties.
This incidence is not isolated, rather there are more and more accounts of Palestinians being shot in the head whether or not they pose a real threat.
On Friday an Israeli soldier shot an unarmed Palestinian man, Iyad Zakariya Hamad, and this soldier is being investigated for manslaughter. The army has admitted that Hamad was not a threat, and was not carrying a weapon. The paramedic attending to Hamad told Haaretz reporter Gideon Levy that Hamad was shot in the back. Levy reported, “He saw an entry wound in the victim’s back and an exit wound in his chest.” The Israeli army maintains the reason Hamad was shit was because he was running away, and did not stop running when told to by troops.
The Israeli military is trying to give the impression that these troops are among ‘a few bad eggs,’ and that these practices are not widespread within the military. Accusations about the unit this soldier was in include other instances of brutality. But according to the testimony of Liebman, these types of behaviors are widespread in the military, and are even taught as protocol in most military units.
Once someone has been shot in the head, Israeli forces are trained to quickly evacuate the scene before media coverage can document the incident. Whenever a video like this makes world news, it fuels new terror attacks, according to the Israeli military.
The military believes the solution is not allowing footage of such incidents to be captured. Perhaps the solution is calling for an end to the military occupation of Palestine.
(Article by Jafari Tishomingo)
Comments
comments