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Israeli pilots miss targets deliberately

Inigo Gilmore

Concern over reliability of intelligence

Hatzor Air Base (Israel): At least two Israeli fighter pilots have deliberately missed civilian targets in Lebanon as disquiet grows in the military about flawed intelligence, it has emerged. Sources say the pilots were worried that targets had been wrongly identified as Hizbollah facilities.

As international outrage over civilian deaths grows, the spotlight is increasingly turning on Israeli air operations.

Yonatan Shapiro, a former Blackhawk helicopter pilot dismissed from reserve duty after signing a "refusenik" letter in 2004, said he had spoken with Israeli F-16 pilots in recent days and learnt that some had aborted missions because of concerns about the reliability of intelligence information.

According to Mr. Shapiro, some pilots justified aborting missions out of "common sense" and in the context of the Israeli Defence Force's moral code of conduct, which says every effort should be made to avoid harming civilians. Mr. Shapiro said: "Some pilots told me they have shot at the side of targets because they're afraid people will be there, and they don't trust any more those who give them the coordinates and targets."

He added: "One pilot told me he was asked to hit a house on a hill, a place from where Hizbollah was launching missiles. But he was afraid civilians were in the house, so he shot next to the house....

Real dilemma

"Pilots are always being told they will be judged on results, but if the results are hundreds of dead civilians while Hizbollah is still able to fire all these rockets, then something is very wrong."

So far none of the pilots has publicly refused to fly missions but some are wobbling, according to Mr. Shapiro. He said: "Their target could be a house firing a cannon at Israel and it could be a house full of children, so it's a real dilemma.."

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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