The Israeli army promoted an officer despite a pending decision over his 'shoot-to-kill' orders against two men carrying white flags in Gaza.
The Israeli army recently promoted an officer to the ranks of battalion commanding officer, “despite a pending decision” to launch “an investigation into reports from his subordinates that he “ordered them to shoot” two Palestinians in Gaza “carrying a white flag,” Haaretz reported on Wednesday.
An Israeli military drone “sent to the site spotted them carrying a white flag and waving their hands above their heads,” the report said.
The deputy commander, according to the two soldiers cited by Haaretz, answered, “I don’t know what a white flag is. Shoot to kill.”
He “later asked, ‘Was it carried out?’; i.e., were the Gazans shot?” the report said.
Even though the officer who issued the countercommand reiterated that the men were carrying a white flag, the deputy commander again requested that they be targeted with a drone. The order was, however, not carried out, the report noted.
The officer who issued the countercommand was deemed “a coward” by his commanding officers.