Israeli army's shoot to kill policy: Israeli soldiers confirm the policy documented in journal

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7518.699

BMJ 2005;331:699 (24 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7518.699

Letter

Israeli army's shoot to kill policy

Israeli soldiers confirm the policy documented in journal

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—My personal view last October on the Israeli armyoperations in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel,attracted support as well as vilification on bmj.com.¹

I noted that two thirds of all Palestinian child fatalitieshad been caused by small arms fire (from relatively close range),in fully half of the cases to the head or upper torso—thesniper's wound. My statement that "clearly, soldiers are routinelyauthorised to shoot to kill children in situations of minimalor no threat" has now been confirmed in emphatic fashion—theauthority being Israeli soldiers who have committed these actsthemselves.^2-4 They refer to one of the cases I described.

Several dozen former soldiers calling themselves "Breaking theSilence" are exposing the cynicism of the Israeli defence forces'mantra that everything possible is done to minimise the riskto Palestinian civilians. These soldiers testify that they wereordered in briefings to shoot . . . [Full text of this article]

Derek A Summerfield, honorary senior lecturer

Institute of Psychiatry, Maudsley Hospital, London SE5 8AP derek.summerfield@slam.nhs.uk

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