Israeli rights group urges soldiers to refuse open-fire orders in Gaza

JERUSALEM — A leading Israel human rights group urged Israeli forces in a rare step Wednesday to disobey open-fire orders unless Gaza protesters pose an imminent threat to soldiers’ lives. B’Tselem said the appeal is a lastditch attempt to prevent more bloodshed on the volatile Gaza-Israel border.

Nineteen Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since Friday, including 14 in border protests. More large demonstrations are expected along the border Friday.

B’Tselem has never before called on soldiers to refuse orders, but believes firing on Palestinians who pose no imminent threat to the lives of Israeli forces is “manifestly illegal,” said spokesman Amit Gilutz.

The Israeli military has said its tough response is justified because the protests were organized by Hamas, an Islamic militant group sworn to Israel’s destruction.

It said soldiers only targeted “instigators” who burned tires or threw stones and firebombs toward the border fence. The military accused Hamas of using the large crowds as cover to carry out attacks.

B’Tselem said that while Israel has the right to defend its border, it is still bound by international norms for the use of live fire. The group said that simply approaching the fence, and even damaging it, does not provide grounds for using lethal force, and that Israel had other options for dispersing the crowds. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hamas is organizing six weeks of on-and-off border protests in what it says is a campaign to draw attention to a crippling border blockade. Protests are planned to continue until May 15, the 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding. The date is mourned by Palestinians as their nakba, or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands were uprooted in the 1948 Mideast war over Israel’s creation. Most of Gaza’s 2 million people are descendants of Palestinian refugees.