An activist group has released testimony from Israeli soldiers who say they were told to shoot first and worry about the consequences later during Israel's January invasion of Gaza.
Israel has rejected charges by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and UN agencies that its invasion of Gaza inflicted civilian death on an unjustifiable scale.
Now, some of the Israeli soldiers who took part say they were urged by commanders that it was 'better hit an innocent than hesitate to target an enemy.'
In print and video testimony of unidentified soldiers published by the activist group Breaking the Silence, 30 troops said the Israeli army's imperative was to minimise its own casualties to ensure Israeli public support for the operation.
The troops regularly used civilians as human shields during the December and January conflict, according to one unidentified soldier.
Another said his commander told him of instances when 'the force would enter while placing rifle barrels on a civilian's shoulder, advancing into a house and using him as a human shield.'
'If you're not sure, kill. Fire power was insane. We went in and the booms were just mad,' says another. 'The minute we got to our starting line, we simply began to fire at suspect places. In urban warfare, anyone is your enemy. No innocents.'
Soldiers in Israel's mainly conscript army have standing orders not to talk to the media.
The report includes testimonies of 30 'who served in all sectors of the operation'.
Israel's Operation Cast Lead had the declared aim of forcing Islamist Hamas fighters to stop firing rockets at towns in southern Israel.
Palestinian rights group have said 1,417 people were killed, 926 of them civilians. The Israeli army put the death toll at 1,166 and estimated that 295 dead were civilians.
Israel said ten of its soldiers and three Israeli civilians were killed.
Whole streets in parts of Gaza were razed to minimise the risk of Israeli casualties from small-arms attacks and booby-trap bombs.
The UN says Gaza is just now beginning to clear the 600,000 tonnes of rubble.
The Israeli military rejected criticism in the 112-page Breaking the Silence report as 'based on hearsay'.
But it pledged in a statement to investigate any formal complaints of misconduct, insisting its troops had respected international law during 'complex and difficult fighting.'
