A former top Israeli military official has been appointed to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of an Israeli Druse officer in the southern Lebanon security zone.
Maj. Kewaan Hamad was killed Dec. 19 during a clash with Islamic fundamentalist Hezbollah gunmen in the western sector of the security zone.
A report last week in a Haifa newspaper alleged that Hamad was also hit by his own men during the clash and killed by Israeli fire when soldiers mistook him for a wounded Hezbollah gunman and conducted a “kill verification”.
A “kill verification” is verifying the death of an enemy in the battlefield, if necessary, by shooting the enemy at close range.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin denied that Israeli forces engage in such a practice.
The head of Northern Command, Maj Gen. Amiram Levine, also denied the newspaper report.
Lt. Gen. Amnon Shahak, the Israel Defense Force chief of staff, appointed Moshe Levy, a former chief of staff, to investigate.
The story caused further controversy when it appeared that reports concerning the soldier’s death may have been concealed from his family.
Levine reportedly said, “There are problems with the Druse faith and the way they treat death, which is why not all details of Kewaan’s death were given to his family”.
Among the tenets of the Druse community is the belief in the afterlife and reincarnation.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
