Today, B’Tselem is publishing Take No Prisoner: Lethal Shooting of Palestinians by Israeli Forces During Arrest Operations. Based on testimonies of Palestinians and IDF soldiers given to B’Tselem over the past year, the report raises the strong suspicion that during this time the military engaged in assassinations in the guise of arrest operations. There is no indication that security forces were instructed to kill the Palestinians defined as “wanted.” However, the information B’Tselem collected indicate that, in some of these cases, the soldiers acted as if they were carrying out assassinations, and made no real attempt to apprehend the Palestinians.

According to B’Tselem’s figures, in 2004, Israeli security forces killed 89 Palestinians during actions defined as arrest operations. At least 17 of the people killed were not “wanted,” but were civilians whom Israel suspected of no wrongdoing. At least 43 of those who were defined as “wanted” were not involved in fighting at the time they were killed. To the best of B’Tselem’s knowledge, not one Military Police investigation has been opened regarding these killings.

In two of the cases described in the report, soldiers besieged a house in which Israel claimed that a wanted man was present, and shot another man as soon as he opened the door. In two other cases, the security forces shot and killed men they defined as wanted, after soldiers had already neutralized any threat the men might pose.

According to B’Tselem, responsibility for the creation of norms in which the security forces carry out executions rests with the highest echelon of the Israeli defense establishment. With the outbreak of the second intifada, the IDF changed the rules of engagement, in general, and the regulations for arresting suspects, in particular. In recent years, the IDF has ordered soldiers to use lethal force in cases in which soldiers’ lives are not in danger; has failed to clearly explain the rules of engagement to soldiers, and has not opened Military Police investigations following the killing of Palestinian civilians by IDF gunfire, except in exceptional cases.