The Israeli army recently promoted an officer to the ranks of battalion commanding officer, “despite a pending decision” to launch “an investigation into reports from his subordinates that he “ordered them to shoot” two Palestinians in Gaza “carrying a white flag,” Haaretz reported on Wednesday.

An Israeli military drone “sent to the site spotted them carrying a white flag and waving their hands above their heads,” the report said.

The deputy commander, according to the two soldiers cited by Haaretz, answered, “I don’t know what a white flag is. Shoot to kill.”

He “later asked, ‘Was it carried out?’; i.e., were the Gazans shot?” the report said.