The death of 23 Palestinians in two days of fighting with Israeli police and soldiers has renewed questions about the Israeli army's use of arms to quell riots.
The deaths, which included several children, came in clashes in Jerusalem on Friday and fighting Saturday throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but the Israeli army's chief of staff fiercely refuted Palestinian allegations that his men were trigger-happy.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reportedly accused the Israeli army of having orders "to aim for the head of Palestinian citizens and worshippers."
Arab League Secretary General Esmat Abdel Meguid, who met Arafat in Cairo, said the Palestinian leader showed him "photographs of Israeli soldiers in the process of aiming their guns equipped with scopes so that the wounds of Palestinians would be direct and fatal."
Palestinian international cooperation minister Nabil Shaath accused Israel of committing "a premeditated crime" by deploying elite units to fend off Palestinian protesters Friday at Jerusalem's mosque compound, leading to the deaths of seven Palestinians and injuring hundreds more.
Israeli officials strongly denied charges that their troops are trigger-happy and said the soldiers had only resorted to bullets when defending themselves from angry protestors.
"The Palestinian statements are ridiculous," said Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben Rubin.
If Israeli police had orders to kill, "there would have been dozens of killed, considering (police) were faced with 6,000 passionate demonstrators," he said.
"The police officers opened fire when it was clear that tear gas was not enough to stop the demonstrators who were getting within 10 meters (yards) of them," he said.
"Our forces used, as a general rule, rubber bullets and, in a very controlled way, live rounds," Ben Rubin added.
The spokesman pointed out that Palestinians throwing stones injured not only police, but also Jews praying at the Wailing Wall at the start of the Jewish new year, and civilians including ambulance personnel.
This, he said, "is something we absolutely cannot tolerate."
He noted that several dozen police officers were injured Friday by stones, including Yair Yitzhaki, the head of police for the Jerusalem district.
The Israeli army's chief of staff, Shaul Mofaz, said: "We only fired in self-defense, like in the case where we were fired at in the south," adding that the Israelis came under intensive fire at Netzarim, a Jewish settlement in Gaza.
The Palestinians also accused Israel of firing so-called dumdum bullets, which are banned internationally, a claim the Israeli army denied.
Israel was similarly accused of using excessive force in 1990, when Israeli police killed 18 Palestinian demonstrators at the mosque compound.
Those killings led to a government investigation that concluded that Israeli officers were far too quick to pull the trigger. The report blamed Israeli officials, although no punishments were assigned.
The tactics used by Israeli security forces have largely been supported by the Israeli public. Nonetheless some 50 Israeli pacifists gathered in west Jerusalem on Saturday to protest, holding signs saying "You Don't Fire on Demonstrators.” – JERUSALEM (AFP)
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