Gaza war order was "shoot first," some troops say

By Douglas Hamilton

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Some Israeli soldiers who took part in the January invasion of the Gaza Strip say they were encouraged by commanders to shoot first and worry later about civilians, and went into Gaza with guns blazing.

Testimony from 30 veterans of Operation Cast Lead, published on Wednesday by the activist group "Breaking the Silence," lends credence to charges by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and U.N. agencies that Israeli forces inflicted civilian death and destruction on an unjustifiable scale.

But the report drew an angry reaction from the military -- which has already rejected war crimes charges by international groups -- in a 3-page statement rebutting the allegations as a slanderous and defamatory mix of rumor and hearsay.

In print and video testimony, almost all of it nameless and digitally blurred, soldiers say the army's Gaza imperative was to minimize its own casualties to maintain public support.

"Better hit an innocent than hesitate to target an enemy," was a typical description by one unidentified soldier of his understanding of instructions repeated at pre-invasion briefings and during the 22-day operation, from December 27 to January 18.

"If you're not sure, kill. Fire power was insane. We went in and the booms were just mad," says another. "The minute we got to our starting line, we simply began to fire at suspect places.

"In urban warfare, anyone is your enemy. No innocents."

DEFAMATION AND SLANDER