"We took up positions of �Straw Widow� (a disguised ambush). We were told that this �Straw Widow� was against armed people and against people climbing on our armed vehicles. Our APCs (armed personnel carriers) were cruising 24 hours a day close to buildings (in Jenin), waiting for kids to climb on them, trying to dislodge the top -mounted MG (machine gun) and to shoot them. We had fixed positions inside Jenin�s casbah, the APCs were on the streets, below us. They were moving continuously. We were expressly told that we were just waiting for someone to climb on an APC, and ordered to shoot to kill. We quickly understood that we weren�t expected to deal with armed people as no armed Palestinian would roam the streets with so many APCs around. They (our authorities) were looking for children or plain people daring to climb on an APC or on any other armored vehicle. We understood that from the talks with our officers.
After a day or two, a 12-year old kid climbed on one of the APCs. There were lots of guesses about his age. First they said he was 8, later, that he was 12. I don�t know. In any case he climbed on an APC and one of our sharpshooters killed him. I already mentioned, we were looking for kids. The neighboring company also had an incident with a kid or teenager, climbing an APC, who was also killed. Some of us said that this whole operation was unnecessary as its purpose was to kill kids, while others said that it was very good.
Was it known that he was unarmed? He was surely unarmed and he climbed on this�. No one asked you why you had two Xs (a mark on the rifle signaling a killed target)"
It's policy to target civilians. That's why the ones who do it are never punished. They sometimes have a show trial so people like beardedbruce can say they don't allow killing of civilians, but these things are almost never brought to trial, and the people involved are never punished.
And the ones who kill the most civilians, they get promoted to prime minister, like Ariel Sharon.