Israel’s Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz said Friday that the Israeli army had killed around 600 Palestinians, arrested some 1,200 and wounded 10,000 more since the latest uprising against 34 years of military occupation erupted last September, reported Haaretz newspaper.
"Since September, when the armed conflict began, we arrested, in very complicated operations, nearly 1,200 terrorists, helpers and those who sent terrorists to carry out their missions," Mofaz told Army Radio, cited by the paper.
"About 600 Palestinians have been killed from all the groups, Tanzim, Hamas, Palestinian security organizations, and about 10,000 of them have been wounded, among them about 100 who led terror in the field," Mofaz said. "This is the first accomplishment of the military in this war against terror," he claimed.
Mofaz alleged that it was "the army's supreme mission to target militants it suspected of planning attacks on Israelis, and that it was an accomplishment for Israel to have hit the militant groups so hard."
Palestinian officials say that over 40 political leaders and resistance fighters have been killed under Israel's assassination policy, variously called by the euphemisms "targeted killings," "liquidations," "surgical strikes," and "interception operations."
AFP's latest death tally for the Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation comes out to 13 Arab Israelis, 566 Palestinians, and 146 Israelis, putting the ratio of casualties at around four Palestinians killed for every Israeli loss.
Israel’s wounded number in the high hundreds, according to army sources, while the Palestine Red Crescent Society puts the number of Palestinians injured at over 14,000.
Amnesty International reported early this year that almost 100 Palestinian children had been killed by Israeli soldiers, nearly all in situations where the occupation troops were under no immediate threat.
According to Palestinian officials, the Israeli army has used excessive force against them and that about 70 percent of those killed by Israel over the past 11 months were civilians and unarmed stone-throwers.
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Nabil Amr was quoted by Haaretz as saying that the army chief was "trying to cover his army's crimes against innocent people."
Mofaz made no reference to Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli troops.
Asked about Mofaz's remarks, the army spokesman's office said it would not add to what had already been said - Albawaba.com
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