New rules of engagement were handed down Tuesday, July 11, to the Israeli military, police and Border Guard units serving in Judea and Samaria that effectively prohibit them from shooting Palestinians found hurling firebombs, carrying out knife attacks or other acts of terror. Henceforth, security forces are restricted to firing in the air. The new orders came from OC IDF Central Command Ronnie Numah. They are a radical departure from the present rules and the first broad restrictions to be imposed on the troops since 15 years ago, then prime minister Ehud Barak forbade security forces to shoot at Palestinian terrorists or their bases – only to turn their fire on vacant ground nearby. The second intifada had erupted by then.
The new directives are as follows:
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkott have changed the rules in an attempt to reverse the rising spiral of Palestinian deaths in the course of recent violent engagements. It is also an attempt to cool flaming Palestinian tempers on the West Bank – especially since the arson murder of a Palestinian toddler and her father in the village of Duma earlier this month. The perpetrators have not so far been found or identified.
It is not known whether Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu endorsed the new rules of engagement.