Below is the English translation from Hebrew of the radio
communications between IDF soldiers that occurred shortly before and
after the murder of nine-year-old Amira al-Hams in Rafah. The recording
was submitted in January 2005 in the trial of the company commander,
whose name has been withheld due to a military court order. He faces a
maximum of three years in prison. Translated from the Hebrew by Nomi
Friedman. Originally from Harper's Magazine, May 2005.
SENTRY: We spotted an Arab female about 100 meters below our
emplacement, near the light armored vehicle gate.
HEADQUARTERS: Observation post "Spain," do you see it?
OBSERVATION POST: Affirmative, it's a young girl. She's now running east.
HQ: What is her position?
OP: She's currently north of the authorized zone.
SENTRY: Very inappropriate location.
[Gunfire]
OP: She's now behind an embankment, 250 meters from the barracks. She keeps
running east. The hits are right on her.
HQ: Are you talking about a girl under ten?
OP: Approximately a ten-year-old girl.
HQ: Roger.
OP: OP to HQ.
HQ: Receiving, over.
OP: She's behind the embankment, dying of fear, the hits are right on her, a
centimeter from her.
SENTRY: Our troops are storming toward her now. They are around 70 meters from
her.
HQ: I understand that the company commander and his squad are out?
SENTRY: Affirmative, with a few more soldiers.
OP: Receive. Looks like one of the positions dropped her.
HQ: What, did you see the hit? Is she down?
OP: She's down. Right now she isn't moving.
COMPANY COMMANDER [to HQ]: Me and another soldier are going in. [To the squad]
Forward, to confirm the kill!
CC [to HQ]: We fired and killed her. She has . . . wearing pants . . . jeans
and a vest, shirt. Also she had a kaffiyeh on her head. I also confirmed the
kill. Over.
HQ: Roger.
CC [on general communications band]: Any motion, anyone who moves in the zone,
even if it's a three-year-old, should be killed. Over."
- via The Angry Arab News Service, 24 Jan 2006
Photo: T-shirt printed for members of the IDF's Haruv Battalion, reads: "We Won't Chill Till We Confirm The Kill".
Source (via Mondoweiss): Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques - IDF fashion 2009 (Ha'aretz):
In many cases, the content is submitted for approval to one of the unit's commanders. The latter, however, do not always have control over what gets printed, because the artwork is a private initiative of soldiers that they never hear about. Drawings or slogans previously banned in certain units have been approved for distribution elsewhere. For example, shirts declaring, "We won't chill 'til we confirm the kill" were banned in the past (the IDF claims that the practice doesn't exist), yet the Haruv battalion printed some last year.
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