A Palestinian who bends over to tie their shoelaces in Gaza could be shot under Israeli military rules of engagement but now an Israeli veterans group says the same shoot-to-kill protocols have been imported to the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reports.

Israeli military veterans advocacy group Breaking the Silence published the transcript of a conversation with an anonymous captain in the Israeli military who said Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank had been given permission to shoot anyone thought to be “messing with the ground”.

The captain said that specific phrase was “code” first used in Gaza and initially intended to describe Palestinians suspected of planting explosives.

In reality, the captain said, the term was regularly used to justify shooting Palestinians who might be otherwise going about their business.

“Think of yourself as a civilian: You mess with the ground to tie your shoelaces, pick something up, throw away garbage; you might be looking for something; you might be picking a flower,” the captain said.

“[But in Gaza], messing with the ground is a code name for planting an explosive device, always.”