86 Court-martials, 40,000 Arrests Since Beginning of Intifada in 1987

Eighty-six soldiers and officers have been court-martialed for offenses such as causing death, violating open-fire orders, assault and damaging property since the start of the intifada nearly two years ago.

Another 500 to 600 soldiers have been summoned to disciplinary hearings for less serious offenses, IDF Judge Advocate General Amnon Strashnow told reporters covering the administered territories Wednesday.

But IDF soldiers are now permitted, with the approval of the Justice Ministry, to shoot at masked Palestinian youths in the territories because they are “hard-core activists of the uprising, responsible for assaulting and killing fellow Arabs,” Strashnow said.

The IDF chief prosecutor explained that soldiers may fire live ammunition at the legs of masked youths if they ignore calls to halt and warning shots fired into the air.

Strashnow stressed, nonetheless, that “this is not a license to kill.”

During the course of the Palestinian uprising, which began Dec. 9, 1987, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been arrested, Strashnow reported. That number includes 8,400 held without trial in administrative detention, he said.

Of that number, 1,889 are still being held.

All told, there are currently 9,600 prisoners held in IDF jails, in addition to 4,000 Palestinian convicts held in Prison Service jails.

Strashnow described the masked youths as “the hard core facing the security forces in their war against the uprising. They oil the wheels of the uprising, confiscating identity cards, preventing workers from coming to Israel, physically assaulting people and murdering them.”

These young men are “terrorizing the population,” he continued, underscoring that “some 125 Arabs have been murdered by Arabs during the uprising.”