Israeli commander 'emptied his magazine' into 13-year-old girl

1.00pm - By DONALD MacINTYRE in Jerusalem

Two separate official investigations are underway into the fatal shooting of a 13-year-old girl in Gaza by the Israeli Army after soldiers testified that their company commander "emptied his magazine" at her after she had already been shot and was presumed dead.

The Army has already admitted that the killing of Iman Alhassam in the southern border town of Rafah a week ago was a mistake and that her bag, which it says soldiers thought carried explosives contained nothing more harmful than school text books.

But now soldiers have come forward to explain that her body was riddled with 20 bullets because their immediate commander "confirmed the killing" by shooting two bullets at her already prone body before withdrawing a short distance and then firing a burst of automatic gunfire at the corpse.

The Judge Advocate General Brig. Gen. Avi Mandelblit has now instructed the Military Police to launch a criminal investigation against the commander in the Givati Brigade's crack Shaked Battalion as a result of the claim.

Unusually, the investigation was ordered even though the Army has not yet completed its own internal inquiry into the shooting exactly a week ago.

The move follows a series of interviews with soldiers serving in the company in the Israeli newspaper Yedhiot Ahronot, which without giving names quoted them-along with a senior Army officer-as saying the commander should have been stood down immediately after the incident.

One soldier told the newspaper: "The company CO who sprayed the girl with bullets turned us all into vicious animals and besmirched us all... As far as we are concerned, it is either him or us. If he is not dismissed-we will not agree to serve under him."

One soldier said the commander had "desecrated the body."

According to figures produced by 11 UN agencies, 24 Palestinians under 17 had been killed since September 28 when the Army entered northern Gaza in response to the firing by Palestinian militants of two Qassam rockets which killed two young Israeli children in Sderot. A nine-year-old girl was also among eleven Palstinians killed in the Gaza Strip over the weekend.

Military sources said yesterday that both investigations would cover the circumstances of the original shooting as well as -in the case of the Military Police investigation-the subsequent actions of the commander.

The Army chief of staff General Moshe Yaalon suggested at Sunday's Cabinet meeting that the girl had been sent out by militants to draw soldiers from their outpost so snipers could shoot at them. He also said that she was far from the normal route to the local school and from any houses. He also said there had been no "confirmation" of the killing of the sort that has been described by the soldiers.

The Army later acknowledged that this statement had been made on the basis of a report made only a day after the incident.

The investigation opened as security sources told the newspaper Haaretz that the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, had rejected for the time being a request from Army commanders to withdraw troops from the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza on the grounds that the fortnight-old operation "Days of Penitence" was endangering troops and that militants had now removed rockets to positions outside the camp.

Mr Sharon meanwhile told the Knesset at the opening of what promises to be a long and difficult winter session for the government that it would be voting on October 25 on his plan to withdraw some 7,500 settlers from Gaza.

The plan faces strong opposition from extreme right parties and from the far right of Mr Sharon's own ruling Likud party. At the same time Shimon Peres, the Labour leader and a potential ally on disengagement has expressed strong concern at remarks last week by Mr Sharon's key adviser Dov Weisglass that the disengagement plan would "freeze" the peace process.

Mr Peres said yesterday that he would back the plan provided the government agreed to take steps to implement the internationally agreed "road map" to peace.

Mr Sharon repeated to the Knesset that the road map was the only available diplomatic solution but that the government had been forced to take "other steps" because there was no Palestinian partner for talks.

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