Rights group questions W. Bank shootings

In the March 12 incident in Bethlehem, Israeli troops riding in a taxi van pulled up behind the militants' parked Daihatsu and began shooting immediately, Palestinian witnesses said. TV footage taken minutes later showed two militants slumped in the back seat. A black sweat shirt worn by a third was punctured by bullets only in the back. At least 91 bullets hit the car, not counting shots that shattered windows.

The killings have stirred little debate in Israel. B'Tselem said there have been similar previous cases: Since 2004, 300 Palestinians have been killed in what the military defined as arrest operations, including dozens who weren't armed or apparently didn't resist.

"A pattern emerges where it seems that in at least some of the cases, forces operate as if they are on de facto assassination operations, rather than arrest operations," B'Tselem spokeswoman Sarit Michaeli said. She called on the military to investigate all suspicious deaths.

The Israeli military referred to the Bethlehem incident as an arrest raid, but did not say the suspects were asked to surrender. "A special Border Police force identified a number of armed Palestinians inside a car," said an army statement. "The force opened fire, killing the four militants in the vehicle."

Commenting on the shooting the following day, Defense Minister Ehud Barak of Israel said: "We demonstrated once again that the state of Israel will continue to pursue and strike all murderers with Jewish blood on their hands."

Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian president, denounced the shooting as a "crime." Officials in his West Bank-based administration routinely condemn the killings of Palestinians by Israeli troops as "assassinations."

The military declined repeated requests for on-the-record comment about West Bank arrest operations, including open-fire rules, saying only that it respects international law and that troops do what they can to ensure their own safety and that of bystanders.