An Israeli military court has ordered the release of the army commander responsible for shooting to death a young Palestinian girl at point-blank range in the Gaza Strip last year, according to the Israeli press....
...The Israeli army had initially said that Iman was shot because soldiers feared she was carrying a bomb in her book bag as she approached an occupation watchtower in a security zone that overlooks the refugee camp.
But a three-way radio exchange between the officers that was broadcast on Israeli television in November made clear that the soldiers knew al-Hams was a young girl that posed no threat.
The soldiers in the recording immediately identified al-Hams as a girl of "about 10" that was "scared to death". She was shot in the legs nonetheless.
Captain R then shot the wounded girl twice in the head, and "confirmed the kill" by emptying his magazine into her limp body.
He then said he would have killed her "even if she was three-years-old"....
...The girl was one of 172 children killed in Gaza in 2004 - and one of 644 killed since the start of al-Aqsa intifada in September 2000, accounting for about 20% of Palestinian deaths. But only one Israeli soldier has been found guilty of manslaughter, although some1700 unarmed Palestinians have been killed since the start of the intifada, according to the Israeli human rights group B'tselem.
Perhaps
this is another good example of how the Israeli army deals with clear cases of murdering innocent Palestinians by its soldiers.
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