Last update - 00:00 27/07/2007
IDF: Soldiers lied during questioning over wrongful shooting of Palestinian
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent
Members of an Israel Defense Forces platoon who apparently shot and wounded a Palestinian without any justification in the West Bank on Thursday, apparently lied in the initial investigation of the incident, IDF sources reported Friday.
A military court on Friday extended the remand of the six suspects involved in the shooting, which occurred in the village of Dahariya near Hebron.
An internal military police investigation, ordered by GOC Central Command Major General Gadi Shamni on Thursday, has not yet been completed. A central command inquiry is being conducted concurrently and the platoon commander has been suspended.
The suspects had originally claimed that during a morning patrol in the village, one of the platoon's soldiers sprained his ankle and couldn't walk. They said that the commander then decided to stop and commandeer a Palestinian taxi.
After the soldiers had tied up the driver and taken control of the vehicle, another Palestinian approached the car. The soldiers decided he was acting "suspiciously" and one of them fired shots in his direction, wounding him in the neck.
According to the IDF sources, the initial investigation revealed that the soldiers had lied, and that no ankle had been sprained. Instead, the platoon had decided on its own accord to carry out an undercover operation, without coordinating the operation with their superiors.
They removed their uniforms and donned civilian clothing and then commandeered the taxi. One of the senior officers conducting the inquiry termed the soldiers' actions as "stupidity stemming from over-motivation."
It emerged that the soldiers had not stopped to treat the wounded Palestinian, who was reportedly severely hurt, and had in fact left him behind bleeding. The soldiers also failed to report the incident. The affair only came to light after media reports of the wounded Palestinian.
Shamni ordered an investigation into the entire platoon and suspended the platoon from operational activity until the completion of the inquiry. Shamni also appointed Colonel David Menahem to head a taskforce that will probe the overall behavior of the regiment in order to see if the incident was part of a much wider phenomenon.