TEL AVIV, November 26, 2008 (WAFA)- Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has assassinated Palestinians in apparent defiance of the Israeli High Court guidelines for such operation, Haaretz Israeli Newspaper said Wednesday on its front page.

The Newspaper added in the article written by Uri Blau, that documents obtained by the newspaper revealed that the IOF approved assassinations in the West Bank even when it could have been possible to arrest the targets instead, and that top-ranking Israeli army officers authorized the killings in advance, in writing, even if innocent bystanders would be killed as well.

Haaretz said it had discovered that contrary to what the state told the High Court, assassinations were subject to only minimal restrictions prior to the court's ruling.

An example Haaretz stated, is that of Ziad Malaisha, who was assassinated on June 20, 2007 in Kafer Dan, near the city of Jenin north of the West Bank.

According to Haaretz, on March 28, 2007, a meeting was called by then-Israeli Army Central Command Yair Naveh to discuss Operation Two Towers. 'The mission' said Naveh, 'is arrest,' but 'in case identification is made of one of the leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad ­ Walid Obeidi, Ziad Malaisha, Adham Yunis the force has permission to kill, according to the situation assessment while carrying out the mission.' Then, On April 12, Naveh convened another meeting on the subject. This time, he approved killing Malaisha and 'another two people at most.'

“That same day, two other discussions took place on the subject. One was led by Brigadier-General Sami Turjeman, then-head of the Operations Unit, who said that the operation must kill no more than five people in total, including the car's driver” the paper added. “The second was led by then-head of the Operations Directorate, Tal Russo, who approved carrying out the assassination even if there was one unidentified person in the car.”

The paper continued that the next day, Israeli Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi forbade the assassination if 'more than one unidentified passenger' was in the car. Naveh, on the other hand, confirmed that sometimes no real effort is made to arrest a target. 'If the guy doesn't put his hands up we don't ask questions, we immediately establish contact,' he said. 'I don't want to have people hurt for no reason. If I know that the guy is armed and is a ticking bomb, then I want him to be hit immediately without fooling around.'