Soldiers 'played' with body

2004-11-18 09:11

Jerusalem - The Israeli army is looking into allegations that combat soldiers desecrated the body of a Palestinian in Gaza and posed for a picture alongside the ravaged corpse.

The army announced the investigation after the website of the Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, released on Wednesday an advance portion of a larger article to be published on Friday.

The article quotes unnamed soldiers testifying that they posed for pictures and desecrated the bodies of Palestinians.

In general, the military condemned such incidents, saying "morality and the purity of arms" are the foundation of the Israeli army. But the army challenged the accuracy of some of the accounts in Yediot, noting that only one was familiar to the army and already being investigated.

'Played like lego'

The Yediot article describes one incident in which an unnamed soldier said he and other troops "played like lego" with the remains of a suicide bomber who had blown up at a checkpoint, killing only himself.

In another incident, an unnamed soldier described how the body of an unarmed Palestinian killed in Gaza was brought to the army outpost and soldiers posed one with the body, taking souvenir photos and giving him the nickname "Inny" for "innocent civilian."

However, the only photograph accompanying the story on the website is of eight soldiers standing around the body of a Palestinian lying on the ground of a Gaza greenhouse.

The faces of the soldiers were blurred by the newspaper, as was the face of the Palestinian, so it is difficult to know if the soldiers are smiling - as was described in the article in other incidents - or just looking down at the body.

"The incidents noted (in Yediot) have been checked and it was found that some of them are inaccurate and others wrong," the army said in a statement. "With this, one of the incidents is known and is being investigated."

The army said it is investigating an incident last year in which soldiers are suspected of desecrating the body of a Palestinian near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip.

- AP