Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 17, 1995                   TAG: 9508170030
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JERUSALEM                                  LENGTH: Medium

HISTORIANS: ISRAELI ARMY KILLED POWS

One veteran described on national radio how two army cooks stabbed to death three Egyptian prisoners.

The controversy involves some of Israel's top politicians, including Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and right-wing legislator Rafael Eitan, a former army chief.

The allegations dominated news shows Wednesday, shocking many Israelis who have long prized the notion that their army maintained high ethical standards - known here as ``purity of arms'' - throughout decades of warfare with the Arab world and military rule over Palestinians.

The affair strained relations with Egypt, which demanded an investigation after a retired Israeli general, Arye Biro, admitted this month that he killed dozens of Egyptian prisoners in the 1956 Mideast war. Biro defended his actions Wednesday, saying he had no other option.

The army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Amos Gilad, refused comment.

Rabin, who was chief of staff when some of the 1967 killings are said to have been committed, walked away Wednesday when a reporter shouted a related question. Rabin's office later issued a statement denouncing the killings and calling them isolated incidents.

``The Israeli Defense Forces earned their glory as a humane army whose soldiers are blessed with special moral values,'' it said.

On Wednesday, a war veteran and author, Michael Bar-Zohar, said he witnessed how three Egyptian POWs were stabbed to death in the Sinai in 1967 but kept quiet about the killings because he feared Arab troops would retaliate.

``Two cooks with knives ... simply slaughtered three prisoners,'' Bar-Zohar said. ``This incident has haunted me for a long time.''

Bar-Zohar later told Israel TV such killings occurred ``in all of Israel's wars'' and that the incidents ``were treated forgivingly'' by leaders.

Military historian Aryeh Yitzhaki told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Israeli troops carried out several mass killings in 1967 in which some 1,000 Egyptian prisoners were killed in the Sinai.

Yitzhaki, who worked in the army's history department after the war, said he and other officers collected testimony from dozens of soldiers who admitted killing POWs.