Israeli undercover unit’s murder of Palestinian civilian was part of "training exercise"

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By Charlotte Silver The Electronic Intifada

At the beginning of this month, I blogged about the shooting of three brothers in the West Bank village of Rammoun on 27 March that resulted in the death of one and was conducted by undercover Israeli agents, an act tantamount to perfidy and thus a violation of international humanitarian law.

Yesterday, Ynet reported that these undercover agents were actually performing a military training exercise and that the soldier responsible for killing Rashad Shawakha, 28, had been dismissed.

As Yossi Gurvitz points out, “The officers who planned the exercise… will remain in their posts.”

But the operation seems to go beyond just the purview of the commanding officers. Conducting the operation was the Duvdevan Unit, a division of the Israeli military that is characterized chiefly by impersonating Palestinians and carrying out undercover operations and trainings. It appears that the training exercise on 27 March, which incorporated a grave breach of international law, is an integral and systematic element of training this elite group. more

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