UK documents show Israeli troops were 'out of control' in 2002 attacks

Britain accused Israel of allowing its troops to run "out of control" during a huge military operation in the occupied West Bank two decades ago, UK government archives have shown.

The files revealed on Tuesday highlight Western concern over the Palestinian death toll during "Operation Defensive Shield" launched by then-Israeli premier Ariel Sharon in March 2002.

The comments are similar to concerns expressed by some Western allies over Israel's current assaults against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza.

Britain's ambassador to Israel at the time warned Sharon's foreign policy adviser that the incursion by the Israeli forces was a "major strategic mistake" which was undermining support for Israel among its allies.

"If some of the reports we were receiving were credible, the IDF's behaviour was more worthy of the Russian army than that of a supposedly civilised country," Sherard Cowper-Coles told the adviser, according to his report of the meeting.

"I was not suggesting that such behaviour was a matter of policy. But there was no doubt that individual soldiers were out of control and committing acts which were outraging international opinion," the diplomat added.

The attack came amid the Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, between 2000 and 2005.

The Israeli army surrounded the compound of then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Ramallah.

Troops cut off phone lines and power supplies while intense street-to-street fighting raged for eight days further north in the Jenin refugee camp.

Bush concern

The offensive was at the time the largest attack in the Palestinian territories since Israel occupied them in 1967.

Then-US president George W Bush complained in a private call with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair that the hardline policies of Sharon were turning Arafat into a "martyr", the files show.

"While Arafat had effectively been marginalising himself, Sharon had succeeded in making a martyr of him," Bush complained, according to a note of the call by the then-UK leader's office.

"The US had tried to persuade Sharon privately, but he just would not listen. The bottom line was that Sharon was undermining the US's ability to pursue the war on terrorism. That was not the action of a good ally," the note added.

The attack lasted just over a month and resulted in the deaths of about 500 Palestinians, according to estimates by the United Nations.