An Israeli soldier implicated in the killing of two Gaza women carrying a white flag faces a 45-day jail term under a plea bargain approved by a military court on Sunday, local media said.
The sniper, identified by Israeli media as “staff sergeant S,” was charged with manslaughter in 2010 over the fatal shooting of an unnamed individual, which Palestinian witnesses linked to the killing of 64-year-old Riyeh Abu Hajaj and her daughter Majda Abu Hajaj, 37, during Israel’s “Cast Lead” Gaza offensive…But the Israeli military said the charge had on Sunday been reduced from manslaughter to using a weapon illegally…”B’Tselem demands that the Military Police investigation unit reopen the file.”
According to B’Tselem, on January 4, 2009, the Abu Hajaj family evacuated their home after it was hit by an Israeli tank shell.
“When they saw tanks about 150 metres (yards) from them, two of them waved the (white) flags, and the children in the group sat on the ground,” B’Tselem said.
“Suddenly, and without warning, shots were fired at the residents, killing Majda Abu Hajaj on the spot. Her mother, Riyeh Abu Hajaj, was severely wounded by the gunfire,” it said. She later died of her wounds.
The incident was one of those raised in the UN Goldstone report on alleged war crimes by both Israel and Gaza’s rulers, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, during the offensive aimed at halting rocket fire from Gaza.
More 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the conflict.
