1 Allegations that Israeli soldiers have orders to kill wounded enemies have been rekindled by the death of an officer reportedly mistaken for a Lebanese guerrilla and shot by his own comrades.
2 According to media reports, Maj. Kiwan Hamed's own troops shot him from afar, and then, still thinking he was a guerrilla, approached to pump bullets into his head to make sure he was dead.
3 Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on Monday denied the long-rumored policy known as 'verifying the kill' existed.
4 'There's no such thing, that after everything is over and the situation is clear, to `verify,'' Rabin said on Israel's Army Radio. 'It's forbidden, it's against regulations.'
5 'I'm not saying there aren't exceptions. If there are they will be taken care of,' he added.
6 The army has long denied it orders soldiers to kill wounded guerrillas, an unsettling prospect for a military that prides itself on its high standard of ethics in the battlefield.
7 But the denials have been challenged by numerous testimonies -- and a videotape Israel TV aired on Sunday that showed troops shooting to death a Palestinian who lay wounded on the ground.
8 The videotape, filmed four months ago by a Palestinian cameraman, showed Israeli troops carefully approaching and killing the prostrate Palestinian, whom had they shot minutes earlier after he stabbed a soldier.
9 A retired colonel who once headed an elite commando unit told The Associated Press the procedure emerged in the 1970s as part of the doctrine of fighting hostage-holding terrorists.
10 Because the army feared the terrorists were carrying explosive belts and might activate them even if wounded, the policy was introduced to save hostages, said the officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
11 He said Monday that the practice is used when soldiers don't have time to check which enemy still presents a danger or in commando activities when taking prisoners is impossible.
12 Yizhar Beer, director of the Israeli human rights group Betselem, said his organization found that the procedure had been used several times in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
13 'Soldiers have a full right to protect themselves and to shoot and kill during battle,' Beer said Monday. 'From the moment the battle is over, they have to protect the lives of wounded people and keep prisoners alive.'
14 Nisham Isha's son, undercover soldier Eli Isha, was mistakenly killed by comrades who thought he was a Palestinian during a July 1992 raid in the West Bank. The elder Isha told the Maariv newspaper that an investigation showed his son was shot four times in the back and twice in the back of the head after he was already lying wounded on the ground.
15 'My son didn't have a chance,' he said. 'If it wasn't for this practice, my son could very well still be alive.'
16 According to media reports that began to leak out last week, the tactic was mistakenly employed against Hamed, a commander from the Druse minority, on Dec. 19, in an Israeli-controlled zone in south Lebanon. The Druse, a religious sect with roots in Islam, serve in the army and are generally loyal to the Jewish state.
17 A soldier who participated in the battle told the Kol Ha'Ir weekly that while storming a building believed held by guerrillas, troops didn't notice Hamed was missing and shot at a man standing outside.
18 'The man fell. We went close, a few soldiers, and saw that he was lying on his side,' the soldier was quoted as saying. 'One carried out the `verifying the kill' procedure as we were taught in many exercises -- to shoot a wounded guerrilla in the head to make sure he is dead.'
19 The battle continued in heavy fog and rain, and only later did the soldiers realize they had shot Hamed, their commander, Kol Ha'ir said. It was not clear when exactly Hamed died.
20 Last week, the army was reported to have withheld details of the incident from Hamed's family.
21 On Sunday, Communications Minister Shulamit Aloni of the liberal Meretz party demanded that army Chief-of-Staff Lt. Gen. Amnon Shahak come clean about the procedure at Sunday's weekly Cabinet meeting, Israel Radio said.
22 Shahak replied that there was no such policy and soldiers never shoot knowingly at anyone who 'does not pose a danger,' the radio said.
23 'When the battle is over no soldier is permitted to shoot at an enemy who surrenders or does not cause a threat,' echoed Capt. Danny Seamans, an army spokesman.
24 On Friday, Shahak appointed retired Gen. Moshe Levy, a former army chief of staff, to investigate the incident. But calls mounted Sunday to remove the inquiry from the army's hands and widen its scope.
25 'We believe the publications are true: The officer was killed by what is called in the army `verifying the kill,'' Druse legislator Salah Tarif told a news conference. 'I'm convinced that cover-up machine will now resume operation.'
26 He demanded that the army's Northern Commander, Maj. Gen. Amiram Levine, in charge of Lebanese operations, be suspended, and that Rabin appoint an investigator from outside the army.

" I ' m not saying there aren ' t exceptions . If there are they will be taken care of , " he added .
If there are they will be taken care of , "
How will the exceptions to the verification concept be taken care of?