The infamous mark on an Israeli weapon

CAIRO, August 10 (IslamOnline.net) – Some trigger-happy Israeli occupation soldiers engrave an (X) mark on their personal guns or sniper pistols each time they kill a Palestinian, according to Israeli press reports Tuesday, August 10.

It has become an honor for some Israeli soldiers to mark their weapon with an 'X' when they kill a Palestinian, according to Israeli daily Ma'ariv.

"It is an honor for me to walk with a weapon carrying this sign" the daily quoted an Israeli sniper as saying.

"It is not only my army colleagues who understand what the sign stands for, but also when I go to my house, the people know I killed saboteurs when they see the sign, I'm proud of it" he said.

By "saboteurs", Israeli officials and media usually mean Palestinian resistance fighters.

Since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, the 'X' habit has become widespread among the Israeli soldiers as a sign of military professionalism, according to the Israeli daily.

The second Palestinian Intifada erupted in September 2000 after Ariel Sharon, Israel's opposition leader at the time and now Prime Minister, desiccated the compound of Islam’s third holiest place, which is at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

' Goes Way Back'

Some Israeli soldiers are trigger-happy

The 'X' practice was first followed by Israeli soldiers during their country's occupation of south Lebanon when they used to engrave the sign on their weapons to record the number of Hizbullah fighters they had killed, according to Ma'ariv.

The resistance movement of Hizbullah spearheaded attacks against the Jewish state due to its occupation of South Lebanon , forcing Israel to end its 22-year occupation of the Lebanese territories in May 2000.

Some Israeli soldiers, however, are dissatisfied with such a practice as, according to them, it puts a bad stamp on military professionalism, according to the mass-circulation paper.

Some Israeli soldiers have been rejecting to perform their military service in the occupied Palestinian territories, citing “illegal and immoral operations" of the occupation army there.

Since then, the number of Israeli reservists, termed "refuseniks", have been on the rise.

Erlik Alhanan, 27, an Israeli soldier, has told IslamOnline.net Saturday, March 20, 2004, that at least 80 percent of reservists have lost confidence in the declared moral principles of the Israeli army due to the practices in Lebanon and the crackdown on the Palestinians.

“It runs counter to the code of ethics of the Israeli Defense Army and what we have learnt inside the military institution. They do not practice what they preach,” Alhanan told IOL.

Palestinian and international human rights groups have repeatedly accused Israel of killing Palestinians in cold blood.

Amnesty International condemned in a report released in September last year the Israeli policy of assassinations, adding that restrictions imposed by Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have had a disastrous impact on the lives of Palestinians.

The assassinations policy is vehemently condemned as a violation of the international law, since they are adopted by the whole country and not as individual acts, said the report.

Other reports slammed Israel for targeting Palestinian children and women, and using them as shields.