IDF chief: probe of killing of girl, 13, was 'grave failure'

Army Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon acknowledged Wednesday that the IDF had failed in investigating the alleged "confirmed killing" of a 13-year-old Palestinian girl in the southern Gaza Strip last month.

According to witness accounts by soldiers serving in the area, after the girl was mortally wounded by troops firing from the Girit outpost near Rafah, the commander of a Givati infantry company at the site fired an entire magazine of automatic fire at her prone body.

Such an act, which is contrary to IDF regulations, is referred to as "confirming the kill" in military slang.

The Givati infantry brigade is considering disbanding the company whose soldiers were involved in the incident, military sources have told Haaretz.

The investigation of the killing uncovered serious malfunctions in the performance of the M'sayaat (covering-fire) company of Givati's Sheked battalion, the sources said, adding that there may be no alternative but to break up the company and disperse its members among other units in the brigade.

Ya'alon's remarks were prompted in part by the fact that essential information about the incident was uncovered not by the IDF inquiry, but by outside sources, Israel Radio reported.

"The fact that in our operational investigation we were unable to reach the whole truth, is a grave failure," Ya'alon said Wednesday.

However, the IDF should retain task of conducting investigations of military incidents, Ya'alon said.

"An external investigation will not bring about the disclosure of the truth, rather the opposite." Ya'alon said he was "determined to deal with every incident of this type, in order to root out every failure of values from the Israel Defense Forces."

Officer charged with illegal use of weapon Captain R., the company commander accused of the "confirmed kill," was indicted in the Southern Command's Military Court Monday. "Confirming" or "verifying a kill" is not listed in the military code as such, and R. was formally charged with illegal use of his weapon in the killing 13-year-old Imam al Hamas, the Palestinian girl who was on her way to school near the Girit outpost.

Military prosecutors issued a five-count indictment against the officer, including two counts of illegally using his weapon, and one count each of obstruction of justice, conduct unbecoming an officer, and improper use of authority. The officer, who has been suspended, was not identified.

Channel Two's documentary show Fact broadcast late on Monday showed the army communications network tape recording of the real-time events, including videotape, in which R. is heard explicitly stating he "verified the kill." The tape showed that the soldiers at the outpost kept firing at the girl even after she had been identified by soldiers as "about 10 years old."

The October 5 event took place around 7 in the morning, when a soldier on duty at the outpost spotted a "suspicious figure" about 100 meters from the outpost. Soldiers immediately began firing at the figure while R., the outpost commander, together with some officers and soldiers, left the outpost and took up a position behind a sand rampart next to the outpost.

The soldiers said they thought she was planting a bomb. The girl's family said she was on her way to school when she was shot. According to the indictment, R. charged the girl after she was shot and fired two rounds at her from close range. He began walking away, then turned around and shot her again.

"The accused stood similarly to the way he stood when he shot her twice - pointed his weapon downward and shot, this time on automatic, approximately 10 bullets until he emptied his magazine," the indictment says. It is not known whether the girl was already dead when he shot her. At the time, Palestinian hospital officials said the girl was shot at least 15 times, mostly in the upper body.

The accused officer initially said he came under fire from Palestinian gunmen at least 300 yards (meters) away as he approached the girl's body and shot at the ground to deter the fire, a military official said. The official could not explain why the officer shot into the ground rather than at the source of the fire.