Israeli paper reports ‘eye-for-eye’ killings of Palestinian cops

The interviews refer to an attack by Palestinian gunmen on a West Bank outpost on February 19, 2002. Six Israeli soldiers were killed and the attackers escaped. The Israeli Army said at the time that it believed two squads of Palestinian gunmen attacked soldiers at an Israeli checkpoint at Ein Ariq.

The retaliation began that same night and continued through the night, according to the soldiers. In one of the Maariv interviews, a soldier identified as ‘‘D’’ says his commander described their mission: ‘‘Six of our soldiers were killed, engineering soldiers at a checkpoint, and we are going out on a revenge operation. We are going to kill Palestinian policemen at a checkpoint, as blood revenge for the six of our soldiers who were killed.’’

‘‘An eye for an eye,’’ the soldier was quoted as saying. He said he and other soldiers waited for Palestinian policemen suspected of having manned the checkpoint where the Israelis were killed. Units were sent to other West Bank checkpoints, where they took aim at a police officer, the soldier said. ‘‘About five of us sprayed him at the same time,’’ he said. ‘‘I emptied a magazine in him.’’ He added: ‘‘I had simply a great day.’’

Maariv’s headline said 15 Palestinian policemen were killed that night. The Israeli Army on Friday said forces had operated against Palestinian Authority targets. —NYT