- JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli
soldiers sometimes fire live ammunition at Palestinians in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip because of a shortage of non-lethal weapons, the state comptroller
wrote in a report released today.
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- The highly critical 108 page report on the Israeli military
found that previous recommendations have not been implemented - like development
of new kinds of non-lethal weapons and acquisition of enough rubber bullets
and tear gas to give soldiers an option besides live ammunition.
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- The report found that many of the gas masks issued to
soldiers - and by extension, to civilians - were ineffective, yet a 20
year program to develop a better mask has been a failure.
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- Anticipating that the military would blame budget cuts
for the deficiencies, comptroller Eliezer Goldberg told reporters, "If
I accepted that claim, I could just close down the office and go home ...
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- "Not everything is a matter of budget. There is
also (mis)management."
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- The report said that a shortage of non-lethal weapons
had caused potentially deadly problems.
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- "There have been incidents in which a unit's lack
of non-lethal weapons led to the use of live ammunition instead,"
the report stated.
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- According to Israeli military open-fire regulations,
soldiers are allowed to use live ammunition only when their lives or the
lives of others are endangered, or after warning procedures have been ignored.
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- The report quoted a commander as saying that often his
unit delays missions until nighttime, when there was a smaller chance of
confrontations with Palestinian civilians, because of the lack of rubber
bullets or tear gas.
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- Israeli forces carry out raids almost every night in
the West Bank and Gaza, arresting suspected Palestinian militants. Some
of the raids develop into gun battles, with casualties on both sides.
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- The report also criticised the military for failing to
develop new non-lethal methods of combat.
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- "Though the changes in the reality the military
faces dictate finding new solutions, ... it appears that in the foreseeable
future, the military will continue to depend on existing means," the
report said.
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- In response, the military said it allocates "considerable
resources to develop non-lethal weapons or purchase" such weapons,
but "unfortunately, we have not found a technological breakthrough
in the world".
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- The military cited budget restrictions in its replies
to other parts of the report.
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- Since violence erupted three years ago, 2,477 people
have been killed on the Palestinian side and 860 on the Israeli side.
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- The comptroller's report criticised the army's gas mask
and flak jacket supplies, noting that many models of both are below standards,
and there were not nearly enough flak jackets for soldiers who need them.
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- The report said that a 20 year program for developing
a more effective gas mask, called the Even-Sapir, has been a failure. This
has implications for Israel's civilian population, because the military
started supplying Israelis with gas masks in 1990, before the first Gulf
War, when Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel.
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- The military redoubled its distribution efforts before
this year's US-led operation against Iraq, but no missiles were fired at
Israel.
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- The comptroller was also critical of the military's attempts
to protect its own vehicles in the West Bank and Gaza against Palestinian
gunfire attacks.
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- The report said that some of the armour plating was substandard
and criticised the practice of detaching the armour from old vehicles and
bolting it onto new ones.
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- Copyright 2003 News Limited.
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- http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7428237%255E1702,00.html
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