950817

'Israeli troops

killed 300

POWs in 1967

JERUSALEM: An Israeli military historian alleged on Wednesday that Israeli troops in a unit labelled "Shaked" under the command of the current housing minister killed some 300 Egyptian prisoners-of-war during the 1967 Middle East war.

A spokesman for Housing Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the minister denied all knowledge of the alleged killings.

Israeli historian Arieh Yitzhaki made the allegation days after Egypt asked Israel to look into reports its troops killed dozens of prisoners-of-war (POWs) in the 1956 Sinai Campaign.

Yitzhaki, in an interview with Israel Radio, also said the killing of prisoners happened in all the wars but said the most infamous case was in Egypt's Sinai desert in the 1967 war. He said in one battle in northern Sinai some 300 Egyptian soldiers had surrendered and were later killed by Israeli troops.

He said soldiers of the "Shaked" unit under the command of then Lieutenant-Colonel Ben-Eliezer killed the Egyptians. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was then army chief of staff.

An Israeli official who declined to be named told Reuters Yitzhaki's story was wrong and was aimed at slandering Rabin's left-centre government.-Reuter