Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Sunday he had asked the attorney general to investigate the leaders of a left-wing group that called on Israeli soldiers to refuse orders to open fire at Palestinian protesters during clashes on the border with the Gaza Strip.

The organization, B’Tselem, lashed out in response, saying Liberman himself was guilty of incitement by demanding that soldiers carry out a manifestly illegal order.

In a tweet Sunday, Liberman said he had asked Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to “probe the heads of B’Tselem for incitement to disobedience after their call for soldiers to refuse orders in defending the border.”

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He was referring to advertisements that B’Tselem took out in Hebrew-language newspapers Thursday in which the group urged Israel Defense Forces soldiers to refuse to fire their weapons at unarmed protesters during demonstrations planned by the Palestinian terror group Hamas at the Gaza border for the next day.

“This subversive and marginal organization, together with haters of Israel and the international media, are trying to delegitimize our soldiers, whose behavior is both legal and moral in an extremely complex situation,” Liberman continued. “We will put an end to this.”

In response to Liberman’s comments, B’Tselem issued a statement reiterating its call for soldiers to refuse what it called “manifestly illegal orders” to use lethal force against demonstrators who didn’t pose a threat to lives. The group slammed the minister for a Sunday radio interview in which he said all of the protesters were being “paid by Hamas” and acting on behalf of the terror group.

“Liberman’s dangerous comments this morning, as though ‘there were no civilians there’ and that all those taking part in the demonstrations in Gaza are Hamas members whom it is legitimate to shoot and kill, demonstrates a deep contempt for basic moral principles,” B’Tselem said.

The organization noted that Article 110 of Israel’s penal code, which it said Liberman was relying on, only outlaws urging soldiers to refuse a legal order — while shooting at unarmed Gazans, the group said, was a manifestly illegal order.

“Therefore, the minister’s request is baseless. The defense minister is the one inciting to break the law, and it is good that the attorney general has an opportunity to make that clear.”

Last week, B’Tselem said it was aiming to inform soldiers that they are legally obligated to refuse orders to shoot unarmed Palestinian protesters, saying such orders are “manifestly illegal.”

Israeli military law requires soldiers to disobey “manifestly illegal” commands, meaning illegal orders that could result in loss of life. In the case of illegal orders that do not threaten a life, soldiers are required to carry them out and then report them to higher echelons in the military.

“B’Tselem warned of the expected outcome of this policy and now, ahead of the expected demonstrations this Friday, it is again clarifying that shooting unarmed demonstrators is illegal and that orders to shoot in this manner are manifestly illegal,” the group wrote in its Hebrew advertisements.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered along the Gaza border on Friday, burning tires and throwing firebombs and rocks at Israeli soldiers, who responded with tear gas and live fire, the army and witnesses said, as Palestinians held a second “March of Return” protest. Nine Gazans were killed and over 1,000 wounded in the day’s clashes.

The IDF said it thwarted multiple efforts to breach the border fence — and that it used live fire to do so in some instances — as well as attempts to activate bombs against the troops under the cover of smoke from the protests.

Beyond the public rhetoric between B’Tselem and some politicians, there is a substantive disagreement between the army and several left-wing groups who have criticized the Palestinian deaths during the border clashes.

A spokesperson for B’Tselem has explained that the group considers anyone not carrying a firearm or explosive device to be “unarmed,” even if they are throwing firebombs or rocks over the border fence, since these are less likely to cause lethal harm to soldiers on the Israeli side.

The IDF, in keeping with many international legal sources, maintains that firebombs and rocks pose a sufficient and credible threat to soldiers to warrant the use of live fire.

The army also maintains that attempts to sabotage and break through the security fence separating Gaza and Israeli usually justify the use of gunfire as such actions could lead to a mass infiltration of Israeli territory, including by terror groups, something the IDF is required to prevent.

Friday’s demonstration was the second of what Gaza’s ruling Hamas terror group said would be several weeks of “March of Return” protests which Hamas leaders say ultimately aim to see the removal of the border and the liberation of Palestine.

Israel has accused Hamas of trying to carry out border attacks under the cover of large protests and said it will prevent a breach of the fence at all costs.

An Islamist terror group, Hamas violently took control of Gaza from Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah in 2007, two years after Israel withdrew its military and civilian presence from the Strip. Israel and Egypt maintain a security blockade of Gaza. Israel says this is vital to prevent Hamas — which has fought three rounds of conflict against Israel since seizing Gaza, firing thousands of rockets into Israel and digging dozens of attack tunnels under the border — from importing weaponry.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. </s> Politicians from across the political spectrum criticized a new campaign Thursday that calls on IDF soldiers to not fire at Gaza protesters.



The campaign was organized by the human rights organization B’Tselem, which is also known as the Israel Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. The campaign's controversial slogan is "I am sorry, officer, I won't shoot."





B'Tselem decided to organize the campaign after warning ahead of last week's protests on the border with Gaza that they would lead to bloodshed. Some 17 protesters were killed, but Israel has said that most of them were Hamas terrorists."Firing at unarmed demonstrators is illegal, and an order to do so is even more illegal," a B'Tselem spokesman said.Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) wrote on Twitter that B'Tselem should instead go to the Gaza Strip and tell people there not to lay explosives on the border, fire at soldiers, and violate Israel's security. He mockingly said if B'Tselem would not take such steps, Israel would have to continue relying on the IDF.Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) responded by calling B'Tselem "liars who support terror" and their campaign "a knife in the back of residents of the South." Erdan said soldiers should continue to listen to their commanders and not "delusional left-wing extremists."Zionist Union leader Avi Gabbay said he condemns any calls for soldiers to resist orders, saying "The IDF is the army of the nation, and it is loyally doing its work defending us during the holiday."Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid accused B"Tselem of "moral blindness and shameful values" and said the organization had "lost its mind." He said B'Tselem should instead call upon Hamas to stop sending terrorists to try cross the border into Israel. </s> B'Tselem, the respected Israeli human rights NGO, began a media campaign today urging Israel Defense Forces soldiers posted on the Gaza border to disobey "patently illegal" shoot-to-kill orders against unarmed protesters. Last week, the IDF gunned down 17 such protesters and wounded more than 700 of them. Another wounded protester later died of his wounds. Fresh protests are expected on Friday and the IDF already announced it will keep its Rules of Engagement (ROE) as they are.The ad appeared on line today and is set to appear in major newspapers tomorrow. The text on B'Tselem's ad reads:, coined after the 1956 Qafr Qassem Massacre, when soldiers of the Border Police murdered 47 Israeli Palestinians after receiving an order to kill anyone outside his house after an impromptu curfew was announced. The defendants claimed they were duty-bound to follow a legal order. The judges found that there are "patently illegal" orders, which may be recognized as "a black flag flying over the order, saying 'it's forbidden!'". They continued:While the words are stirring, the nature of a "patently illegal" order was always debated. Soldiers are taught that their duty is to obey a merely illegal order, but that they legally obligated to disobey a "patently illegal" one.This is the first time an Israeli NGO has explicitly warned Israeli soldiers that they are about to commit war crimes in advance of the act itself.B'Tselem has toughened its position towards the army and government in recent years. Two years ago, the NGO decided to stop cooperating with the IDF and its notoriously inept Military Police Criminal Investigation Division,B'Tselem CEO Hagai El-Ad appeared in the UN Security Council in October 2016, calling upon the world to protect Palestinians from Israel.Those decisions caused controversy not just in the general Israeli public, but also within the Israeli human rights NGOs sphere: Most NGOs rejected B'Tselem's position regarding non-cooperation with the IDF, arguing that by so doing they would lose whatever shred of ability to change the system they still had. </s> JERUSALEM >> A leading Israel human rights group urged Israeli forces in a rare step Wednesday to disobey open-fire orders unless Gaza protesters pose an imminent threat to soldiers’ lives.

B’Tselem said the appeal is a last-ditch attempt to prevent more bloodshed on the volatile Gaza-Israel border.

Nineteen Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since last Friday, including 14 in border protests. More large demonstrations are expected along the border this Friday.

B’Tselem has never before called on soldiers to refuse orders, but believes firing on Palestinians who pose no imminent threat to the lives of Israeli forces is “manifestly illegal,” said spokesman Amit Gilutz.

“As long as soldiers in the field continue to receive orders to use live fire against unarmed civilians, they are duty-bound to refuse to comply,” the group said.

The Israeli military has said its tough response is justified because the protests were organized by Hamas, an Islamic militant group sworn to Israel’s destruction.

It said soldiers only targeted “instigators” who burned tires or threw stones and firebombs toward the border fence. The military accused Hamas of using the large crowds as cover to carry out attacks.

In one instance, a pair of gunmen approached the border, and the army said protesters also tried to plant explosives along the fence in several instances.

But in other incidents, some caught on video, those shot appeared to have been unarmed and not actively involved in violence at the time they were struck.

B’Tselem said that while Israel has the right to defend its border, it is still bound by international norms for the use of live fire. The group said that simply approaching the fence, and even damaging it, does not provide grounds for using lethal force, and that Israel had other options for dispersing the crowds.

“The provisions limit its use to instances involving tangible and immediate mortal danger, and only in the absence of any other alternative,” the group said. “Israel cannot simply decide that it is not bound by these rules.”

Israel’s military is the country’s most respected institution, and such criticism, even from a dovish group, is relatively rare. B’Tselem said it would be publishing newspaper ads and take other steps to publicize its campaign.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But the country’s defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said Tuesday that the military will not change its tactics and warned that anyone who approaches the border is risking his life. The tough comments raised the possibility of more bloodshed this Friday, when another mass protest is expected.

On Wednesday, the head of the Arab League called on the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate the deaths of Palestinians killed in Gaza since Friday. Ahmed Aboul-Gheit also said he supports a call by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for an independent investigation of the events on the border.

Hamas is organizing six weeks of on-and-off border protests in what it says is a campaign to draw attention to a crippling border blockade.

Both Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 in an attempt to weaken the militant group. But the measures have devastated Gaza’s economy, while failing to oust Hamas.

Israel said Wednesday it has arrested 10 Palestinians suspected of planning an attack against a navy ship off the Gaza coast.

The Shin Bet security service said the interrogation of the cell’s alleged leader revealed a plan to send a decoy boat from Gaza to distract the navy ship while another would fire a rocket at it. The plan called for militants to then try to abduct wounded sailors and keep them as bargaining chips for future prisoner swaps.

Amin Jamaa was being indicted Wednesday at a court in southern Israel.

The Shin Bet identified him and his cohorts as members of the Islamic Jihad militant group and said they were abusing the easing of Israeli restrictions on Gaza fisherman to collect intelligence on Israel’s naval operations along the coast.

“This is proof of the true intentions of the terror groups in Gaza who are trying to hide their murderous plans by staging provocations along our border whose sole purpose is to provide cover for terrorists to carry out their attacks against Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Daoud Shehab, an Islamic Jihad spokesman, said he had no information about the Israeli announcement but that his group was involved in “open confrontation” against it.

“It’s also our right to look for suitable ways to force Israel to release Palestinian prisoners,” he added.

Protests are planned to continue until May 15, the 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding. The date is mourned by Palestinians as their “nakba,” or “catastrophe,” when hundreds of thousands were uprooted in the 1948 Mideast war over Israel’s creation. Most of Gaza’s 2 million people are descendants of Palestinian refugees. </s> The Israeli army on Tuesday said a soldier who shot a Palestinian suspect near the Gaza border in a recently circulated video behaved appropriately, but criticized the soldier who filmed and cheered the incident for violating military values.

The army said the cameraman, who was not part of the unit serving on the border and was not stationed at the same position, would face a disciplinary hearing. The initial result of the investigation into the video has been handed over to the Military Advocate General Corps, which will consider criminal charges.

According to the army’s initial investigation, the video was filmed on December 22 during a violent demonstration along the Gaza border, near the Israeli community of Kibbutz Kissufim.

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The army said the Palestinian who was shot was one of the people “suspected of organizing and leading” the violence along the border, which included the throwing of rocks and Molotov cocktails.

The military maintained that the sharpshooter behaved appropriately, firing one bullet as the suspect approached the fence after ignoring warnings and calls to halt. The army also refuted a claim heard in the video that the suspect was shot in the head, saying he was wounded in the leg.

The video came to light on Monday, leading Israel’s national television broadcast and prompting a wave of condemnations across the political spectrum, as well as some justification and support for the soldiers featured in it.

On Tuesday, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman also expressed his support for the sniper, while criticizing the soldier who filmed the event.

“The sniper deserves an honor and the cameraman a demerit,” he said at an event in northern Israel.

In the footage, the cameraman can be heard cheering as the Palestinian is shot, something the army said “does not fit with the spirit and degree of restraint expected of IDF soldiers.”

The army reportedly debriefed one of the soldiers who featured in the clip.

Though he criticized the video, Liberman also appeared to defend the cheering heard in it, saying it was inappropriate but somewhat understandable for soldiers in stressful situations.

“The IDF is the most moral army in the world, but when you are on the front lines and tense sometimes you let out some tension, so you can understand this,” he added, calling IDF troops “the best of the Israeli people.”

Earlier Tuesday, Education Minister Naftali Bennett defended the soldiers in the video and pushed back at their critics.

“Anyone who was ever in the field knows that to sit in Tel Aviv or in studios and judge the expressions of IDF soldiers guarding the borders isn’t serious,” Bennett, who heads the right-wing Jewish Home party, told Army Radio Tuesday morning.

“We are starting to judge soldiers based on the quality of their speech and whether it sounds nice or not?” he said. “Really?”

Expressing his support for the soldiers, Bennett blasted critics for judging their “inelegant” speech rather than their actions, and noted IDF troops’ role in defending Israel’s borders.

He later tweeted, “IDF soldiers protect our lives. We protect them. [We] don’t abandon soldiers.”

Officials from across the Israeli political spectrum on Monday condemned the video. While most also expressed confidence that the army would investigate the incident, human rights groups claimed dozens of similar shootings have recently taken place. “The IDF is a moral army, but immoral actions may be committed within it,” said MK Nachman Shai of the left-wing Zionist Union party. “This incident and all incidents require an investigation. The battle isn’t just between us and Hamas; it is also for ourselves, for our values and for the identity of Israel society.”

In the video, which was apparently filmed through a scope or binoculars, soldiers can be heard discussing the shot ahead of time, as the sniper trains his rifle on the suspect, who is seen standing next to another Palestinian crouching in front of a roll of barbed wire, several meters away from the security fence.

The Palestinian does not appear to be armed and is not seen throwing rocks or firebombs at the security fence or the Israeli troops on the other side.

“The moment he stops, you drop him. Do you have a bullet in the chamber? Are you [trained] on him?” the commander is heard asking in the footage.

The sharpshooter can then be heard saying he cannot fire because his shot is blocked by the rolls of barbed wire along the security fence.

At one point, the sniper says he is ready to fire, but his commander tells him to wait. “There’s a little kid,” the commander says.

One soldier, apparently the one filming the incident, calls over a friend a moment before the gunshot is heard and the Palestinian is seen crumpling to the ground.

“Whoa! What a video! YES! Son of a bitch. What a video! Look they’re running to evacuate him,” the photographer enthuses.

“Of course I filmed it,” he adds, responding to a question.

Another soldier is then heard saying, “Whoa, [he] hit him in the head.”

As a group of Palestinians can be seen carrying the injured man away, the photographer adds, “What a legendary video.”

Reporting on the video clip, which was the lead item on Israel’s national news broadcasts on Monday evening, TV correspondents said it was not clear whether the Palestinian suspect had been injured or killed.

‘Armchair critics’

Echoing Bennett, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) expressed support on Tuesday for Israeli troops and dismissed the uproar over the video.

“I’m unable to comprehend what isn’t okay in the video. You can’t take a human reaction — no matter how over-the-top — from a battlefield and judge it from the armchairs in Tel Aviv,” he told Israel Radio.

While saying such a video “shouldn’t exist,” Science Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) urged against rushing to judgment over the incident.

“The Palestinian who approached the border didn’t come to ask for peace,” he told Israel Radio.

The focus on the video came just a day after the IDF General Staff announced that it was launching an investigation into the military’s response to a series of violent protests along the Gaza border in recent days, which have so far resulted in the deaths of some 30 Palestinians.

Border incidents in the past two weeks have included two massive demonstrations in which tens of thousands of Palestinians took part.

The protests were part of a planned six-week “March of Return” that is due to end in mid-May with both “Nakba Day,” marking the displacement of Arabs after Israel’s creation, and the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — a plan that has infuriated Palestinian leaders.

Palestinian activists have insisted the protests were civilian-led and nonviolent, while Israel has said they were often used as cover for attempts at violence against Israeli troops and breaches of the border. The IDF says the marches are a new tactic by Hamas, which rules Gaza, to conduct terror operations in the confusion of the demonstrations.

The army said that it had spotted multiple attempts by terrorists to plant explosive devices along the Gaza border, a shooting attack on IDF troops by two well-armed Palestinian men dispatched by Hamas, as well as an attempted infiltration by a gunman wearing a suicide bomb vest. Hamas, a terror group that seeks to destroy Israel, has acknowledged several of its operatives were among the Palestinian dead. Hamas leaders have said the ultimate goal of the protests is to erase the border and liberate Palestine. </s> A Palestinian protester runs holding a teargas canister fired by Israeli troops during a protest at the Gaza Strip border with Israel, in eastern Gaza City, Wednesday. A leading Israel human rights group urged Israeli forces in a rare step Wednesday to disobey open-fire orders unless Gaza protesters pose an imminent threat to soldiers’ lives. (Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

JERUSALEM — A leading Israel human rights group urged Israeli forces in a rare step Wednesday to disobey open-fire orders unless Gaza protesters pose an imminent threat to soldiers’ lives.

B’Tselem said the appeal is a last-ditch attempt to prevent more bloodshed on the volatile Gaza-Israel border.

Nineteen Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since last Friday, including 14 in border protests. More large demonstrations are expected along the border this Friday.

B’Tselem has never before called on soldiers to refuse orders, but believes firing on Palestinians who pose no imminent threat to the lives of Israeli forces is “manifestly illegal,” said spokesman Amit Gilutz.

“As long as soldiers in the field continue to receive orders to use live fire against unarmed civilians, they are duty-bound to refuse to comply,” the group said.

The Israeli military has said its tough response is justified because the protests were organized by Hamas, an Islamic militant group sworn to Israel’s destruction.

It said soldiers only targeted “instigators” who burned tires or threw stones and firebombs toward the border fence. The military accused Hamas of using the large crowds as cover to carry out attacks.

In one instance, a pair of gunmen approached the border, and the army said protesters also tried to plant explosives along the fence in several instances.

But in other incidents, some caught on video, those shot appeared to have been unarmed and not actively involved in violence at the time they were struck.

B’Tselem said that while Israel has the right to defend its border, it is still bound by international norms for the use of live fire. The group said that simply approaching the fence, and even damaging it, does not provide grounds for using lethal force, and that Israel had other options for dispersing the crowds.

“The provisions limit its use to instances involving tangible and immediate mortal danger, and only in the absence of any other alternative,” the group said. “Israel cannot simply decide that it is not bound by these rules.”

Israel’s military is the country’s most respected institution, and such criticism, even from a dovish group, is relatively rare. B’Tselem said it would be publishing newspaper ads and take other steps to publicize its campaign.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But the country’s defence minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said Tuesday that the military will not change its tactics and warned that anyone who approaches the border is risking his life. The tough comments raised the possibility of more bloodshed this Friday, when another mass protest is expected.

On Wednesday, the head of the Arab League called on the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate the deaths of Palestinians killed in Gaza since Friday. Ahmed Aboul-Gheit also said he supports a call by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for an independent investigation of the events on the border.

Hamas is organizing six weeks of on-and-off border protests in what it says is a campaign to draw attention to a crippling border blockade.

Both Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 in an attempt to weaken the militant group. But the measures have devastated Gaza’s economy, while failing to oust Hamas.

Israel said Wednesday it has arrested 10 Palestinians suspected of planning an attack against a navy ship off the Gaza coast.

The Shin Bet security service said the interrogation of the cell’s alleged leader revealed a plan to send a decoy boat from Gaza to distract the navy ship while another would fire a rocket at it. The plan called for militants to then try to abduct wounded sailors and keep them as bargaining chips for future prisoner swaps.

Amin Jamaa was being indicted Wednesday at a court in southern Israel.

The Shin Bet identified him and his cohorts as members of the Islamic Jihad militant group and said they were abusing the easing of Israeli restrictions on Gaza fisherman to collect intelligence on Israel’s naval operations along the coast.

“This is proof of the true intentions of the terror groups in Gaza who are trying to hide their murderous plans by staging provocations along our border whose sole purpose is to provide cover for terrorists to carry out their attacks against Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Daoud Shehab, an Islamic Jihad spokesman, said he had no information about the Israeli announcement but that his group was involved in “open confrontation” against it.

“It’s also our right to look for suitable ways to force Israel to release Palestinian prisoners,” he added.

Protests are planned to continue until May 15, the 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding. The date is mourned by Palestinians as their “nakba,” or “catastrophe,” when hundreds of thousands were uprooted in the 1948 Mideast war over Israel’s creation. Most of Gaza’s 2 million people are descendants of Palestinian refugees. </s> IDF soldiers will continue to fire at Palestinians from Gaza who come too close to Israel’s border fence that separates the Strip from the southern part of the country, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said on Tuesday morning.



“Anyone who comes close to the fence will endanger their lives,” said Liberman during a visit to the southern border.





He dismissed international criticism of his live fire policy by the UN and European countries as he warned the thousands of Gaza participants in the "March of Return" not to try to cross into Israel by breaking through the border fence.The six-week event was launched last Friday with some 30,000 participants. IDF soldiers killed 17 of the protestors . The army has since said that those killed were among protesters close to the fence who were acting violently toward its soldiers. This included two armed Palestinian men with an en explosive device who, the army said, planned to execute a terror attack.Palestinians have, in turn, charged that those killed were unarmed protestors standing up for their right to return to land the Palestinians lost during the 1948 War of Independence.No Gaza inquiry, Israeli Defense Minister Liberman says, April 1, 2018 (Reuters)Liberman said he hoped the Palestinians now understood that this protest was pointless.“I think the other side [the Palestinians] understand that it is not worth it to continue and I warn those who do against any additional provocation,” Liberman said.“Most of those who were killed are well known terrorists who are active in Hamas’s military wing and in the Islamic Jihad,” said Liberman. “These are not innocent civilians who came to peacefully protest,” he added.“We are not provoking the people in Gaza. We are protecting our citizens,” he said.“We have set very clear rules [of engagement] and we have no intention of changing them,” Liberman said.“We are determined to protect the security of Israeli citizens, of course, first and foremost, in the area of Gaza, and there will be no compromise on this issue, no flexibility,” said Liberman.Gaza residents who want to see true change should invest their energies in regime change by working to remove Hamas from power, rather than in protests against Israel, said Liberman.Hamas leaders have invested $260 million in terror infrastructure in Gaza rather than in water, electricity or education for their people, charged Liberman.Israel is prepared to help Gaza rehabilitate itself economically if Hamas agrees to demilitarize the area, Liberman said.According to media reports, Hamas has asked the Arab League to turn to the International Criminal Court at The Hague with regard to the Gaza deaths.The Left-wing group B’Tselem said that Liberman’s decision to continue to order his soldiers to shoot at demonstrators was frightening and illegal.“An order to fire at unarmed demonstrators who pose no danger to anyone is a blatantly illegal,” B’Teslem said.“The fact that, after the events of Friday and the number of wounded and killed in the course of the attack, the defense minister repeats the same orders is frightening. The government of Israel and the army must change the orders and make it clear that it is forbidden to fire on demonstrators."Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said, “Israeli soldiers were not merely using excessive force, but were apparently acting on orders that all but ensured a bloody military response to the Palestinian demonstrations.”“The result was foreseeable deaths and injuries of demonstrators on the other side of a border who posed no imminent threat to life," Goldstein said.These kinds of actions “highlight the importance of the International Criminal Court prosecutor opening a formal investigation into serious international crimes in Palestine,” HRW said.Among the stories of the dead that Palestinians have promoted on social media is that of artist Mohammad Abu Umr, whose work included sand sculptures on the Gaza beach.Israel has listed him as one of the ten known terrorists who were killed, and Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office tweeted a photo of him in fatigues with a gun and a headband. </s> Days after the bloodshed along the border with Gaza, Israel's defense minister, Avigdor Liberman, has vowed a lethal response to those who approach the border fence again."Anyone who comes close to the fence will endanger their lives," Liberman said in a video message for the Jerusalem Post from Kibbutz Holit, close to the southern Gaza Strip. Liberman emphasized that all protestors would face Israeli snipers.The warning came just hours after a Palestinian man, Ahmad Arafeh, fell victim to Israeli gunfire along the Gaza border, bringing the death toll to 18 since Friday when around 30,000 Palestinians started rallying. A six-week campaign called 'The Great Return March' is a protest against Israeli settlements on the former Palestinian territory which is now Israel.The bloodshed elicited international concern and condemnation. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, and human rights group Amnesty International called for an "independent and transparent investigation."However,The minister said troops acted appropriately and fired only at Palestinian protestors who posed a threat. The IDF claimed all of the Palestinians who were shot dead at the border were Hamas fighters.Human Rights Watch defined such claims as attemptsPalestinians said the protestors were unarmed and defenseless refugees, as some of them were demanding the right to return home to the territory presently occupied by Israel, which was lost during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The territory was occupied by the State of Israel since the moment of its formation.Ahead of looming protests this Friday, Israel's Foreign Ministry released a video in which it warned Hamas was "preparing for violent riots and armed combat on the Israeli border this coming Friday."The video is in addition to a Foreign Ministry message that Palestinians "are violent rioters, not peaceful demonstrators."During his visit to the border of the Gaza Strip, the defense minister said that protestors were "not innocent civilians who came to protest." Liberman told the Jerusalem Post: "Most of those who were killed are well-known terrorists who are active in Hamas' military wing or in Islamic Jihad."Human Rights Watch deputy director for the Middle East, Eric Goldstein, said: "Israeli soldiers were not merely using excessive force, but were apparently acting on orders that all but ensured a bloody military response to the Palestinian demonstrations." The organization called on the Israeli government to recognize that "even in the absence of serious domestic oversight, officials who order unlawful lethal force may become subject to prosecution abroad as a matter of universal jurisdiction or in international judicial forums." </s> People react as they evacuate deaf Palestinian Tahreer Abu Sabala, 17, who was shot and wounded in the head during clashes with Israeli troops, at Israel-Gaza border, in the southern Gaza Strip April 1, 2018. — Reuters picGAZA CITY, April 2 — Israel rejected calls for an independent probe yesterday after its soldiers killed 16 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more when a major demonstration led to clashes along the border with the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s military has faced questions from rights groups over its use of live fire on Friday, the bloodiest day in the conflict since a 2014 war, while Palestinians accused soldiers of firing on protesters posing no threat.

Both UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini have called for an independent investigation.

On Saturday, the United States blocked a draft UN Security Council statement urging restraint and calling for an investigation of the violence, diplomats said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the soldiers for “guarding the country’s borders,” while Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the protests were not a “Woodstock festival”.

Lieberman said calls for an independent investigation were hypocritical and yesterday repeated his rejection of such a probe.

“There will be no commission of inquiry,” he told Israel’s public radio.

“There will be no such thing here. We shall not cooperate with any commission of inquiry.”

Netanyahu also hit back at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over his sharp criticism of what he called Israel’s “inhumane attack” in Gaza.

“The most moral army in the world will not be lectured to on morality from someone who for years has been bombing civilians indiscriminately,” Netanyahu tweeted.

He has previously labelled Erdogan as someone who “bombs Kurdish villagers”.

Erdogan responded later in the day by calling Netanyahu a “terrorist.”

On Friday, Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians who strayed from a main protest camp attended by tens of thousands and approached the heavily fortified fence cutting off the blockaded Gaza Strip.

The military has defended actions of its soldiers and said they opened fire only when necessary against those throwing stones and firebombs or rolling tyres at soldiers.

It said there were attempts to damage the fence and infiltrate Israel, while alleging there was also an attempted gun attack against soldiers along the border.

Israel accuses Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Gaza and with whom it has fought three wars since 2008, of using the protest as cover to carry out violence.

In addition to the 16 Palestinians killed, more than 1,400 were wounded Friday, 758 of them by live fire, with the remainder hurt by rubber bullets and tear gas inhalation, the health ministry in Gaza said.

No casualties were reported among Israelis.

The armed wing of Hamas said five of those killed were its members who were participating “in popular events side-by-side with their people”.

The Israeli army alleges 10 of the dead had “documented terror backgrounds” in Hamas and other groups and were killed “whilst carrying out acts of terror”.

Unverified videos being shared online have fuelled the debate, including one appearing to show a protester running with a tyre being shot while seeming to pose no threat.

Israel’s army has issued a statement saying footage is being “edited and fabricated,” without referring to specific videos.

Rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticised Israel’s use of live fire.

Israel had deployed troop reinforcements along the border, including more than 100 special forces snipers, saying it would prevent attempts to break through the fence.

In Tel Aviv yesterday, between 200 and 300 leftwing Israeli opposition demonstrators staged a protest outside the offices of Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party to denounce the government’s role in the killings.

“The government is doing everything it can to present the Palestinians as the only guilty party whereas it played an important part in the responsibility for what happened,” Hagit Ofran of the Peace Now group which opposes Israeli settlement of Palestinian land told AFP.

Peace Now issued a statement condemning what it called the army’s “trigger happy” policies under orders from the government.

The Gaza protests, which include tents erected at various areas, are designed to last six weeks, ending around the time the United States moves its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in mid-May.

The embassy move has deeply angered the Palestinians, who see Jerusalem’s annexed eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

But while tens of thousands attended Friday’s start of the protests, demonstrations have since dwindled.

Several hundred attended on Saturday, while yesterday dozens were in the area, with low-level clashes occurring.

“I left the hospital today and I came straight back,” Hamada Zaza, 18 and with a bloodied bandage on his hand covering what he said was a bullet wound, told AFP.

The protests may however again see large crowds after this coming Friday’s main Muslim prayers and for other key dates ahead.

May 14 will mark 70 years since the creation of Israel and is when the United States is expected to open its new Jerusalem embassy.

Palestinians will mark what they call the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” the following day.

The Nakba commemorates the more than 700,000 Palestinians who either fled or were expelled from their homes in the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948.

Gaza’s protest is in support of refugees, including those in the Palestinian enclave who want to return to their former homes in what is now Israel. — AFP
Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman asks Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to probe NGO B’Tselem for "incitement to disobedience" for asking Israeli troops at the border to refuse orders. B’Tselem accuses Liberman in response of "a deep contempt for basic moral principles" and reiterates its call for IDF personnel to refuse to carry out "manifestly illegal orders".