Israeli Troops: We Were Ordered to Kill Gaza Civilians

Israeli soldiers' accounts about their actions in Gaza seem to back up critics' assertions that the army violated rules of war and have set off a "soul-searching" in Israel, writes Richard Boudreaux in the Los Angeles Times. The troops tell of orders to shoot civilians without warning and destroy property "just because you can." The army has ordered a special investigation.

"When we entered a house, we were supposed to bust down the door and start shooting inside and just go up story by story," one soldier was quoted as telling a military prep school. "Each story, if we identify a person, we shoot them. I asked myself: 'How is this reasonable?' " Two other widely published accounts detail the shooting of a mother and two children, and the killing of an elderly woman in a road. "I have no doubt that this will be studied seriously," said defense chief Ehud Barak.