RAMALLAH, 5 August 2007 — The Israeli forces formally reprimanded and censured the commanders of the Kfir Brigade and the Lavi Battalion following the incident in which Israeli soldiers hijacked a Palestinian taxicab in the West Bank village of Ad-Dahriya south of Hebron and shot a Palestinian in the village.
Central Command chief Gadi Shamni said: “This is an event which contradicts the core values and norms according to which the Israel Forces operates.”
Shamni received the findings of an inquiry into the incident several days ago and decided to censure the officials involved. The Kfir Brigade commander was reprimanded over failures in training, supervision and reinforcement. The battalion commander, who took office three weeks before the incident took place, was reprimanded over his failure to spot professional problems on the operational level. The outgoing battalion commander was censured over his responsibility for the norms rooted in the battalion. The company commander is held in custody and is being probed by the Israeli Military Police. The five soldiers involved in the incident are also under the investigation of the Military Police.
According to Shamni, “This is an important inquiry which relates to significant issues on the moral and normative levels. Such an incident does not characterize the activity of the Lavi Battalion fighters and the thousands of fighters and commanders in their daily activities for the security Israeli citizens.
“This is a very bad event both in terms of the result and in terms of the conduct. It is an unusual event and it is our duty as commanders to ensure that such incidents do not take place again.”
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi also noted that this was a severe incident which contradicted the Israeli forces values and the norms according to which it operated.
The army chief addressed the issue during a meeting with the General Staff and said that all Israeli forces soldiers must learn the lessons. The shooting incident, which occurred last Thursday in the village of Ad-Dahriya at first appeared to be a common security incident.
In another development, the Israel forces’ Gaza Division will conduct an inquiry in the coming days in order to determine how two Palestinians managed to infiltrate Israel from the Gaza Strip on Friday. The Israeli forces realized that the Palestinians had successfully crossed the fence near Kibbutz Meflasim along the northern Gaza Strip after a delay, and was therefore unable to capture the two.
After crossing the border, they boarded a commercial vehicle that awaited them on the Israeli side of the fence, traveling northward before being eventually captured by police in the Arab town of Tira inside Israel.
Although Israeli security officials believed the infiltration was “nonterrorist” in nature, Israeli police nonetheless conducted the type of search operation generally reserved for cases of “terrorist” infiltration.
