Investigations are being conducted involving almost all the combat units that took part in the operation that saw the IDF take control of Palestinian cities in the West Bank.

Deputy IDF prosecutor Colonel Ilan Katz told the radio that actions by commanding officers to confiscate the looted property had not gone far enough. According to army law, a commander who knows that one of his men has looted is obliged to report the case to the military police.

Katz noted that soldiers convicted of looting in a military court would then have a criminal record that would accompany them for many years in addition to punishments they receive.

Katz also confirmed that the IDF had already charged a number of soldiers with looting.

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yisrael Lau today said that Israel must completely uproot the phenomenon of IDF soldiers looting Palestinian homes.

Speaking in Jerusalem at the annual conference of the Chief Rabbinate, Rabbi Lau said it is unthinkable that drunkenness, violence, theft or looting
should become characteristic of the people of Israel.