Al Jazeera broadcasted several disturbing videos of what was described as "summary executions" last month. In the videos, Israeli soldiers can be seen shooting Palestinians walking near the coastal road in the Gaza Strip on three separate occasions.
In all the videos, the Palestinians seemed unarmed and did not pose any immediate threat to the soldiers. Footage like this is rare because of the severe restrictions faced by journalists in the area and the constant danger to their lives.
But these executions, which did not seem to have any security rationale, are supported by the testimonies of six Israeli soldiers who spoke to interviewers after their release from active duty in Gaza in recent months.
Israeli soldiers "authorized" to open fire at will on Palestinians
The testimony of the six soldiers corroborated the testimonies of Palestinian eyewitnesses and doctors throughout the Israel-Hamas war. According to the soldiers, they were "authorized to open fire on Palestinians virtually at will, including civilians."
All but one of the six sources spoke under the condition of anonymity. They discussed how Israel Defense Forces (IDF) often executed Palestinian civilians just because they entered an area that the military considered a "no-go zone."
Two of the soldiers also testified to a brutal policy of setting Palestinian homes on fire after occupying them. (Related: Congress orders State Department to cover up Israel’s war crime death toll.)
Several sources talked of how the ability to shoot without restrictions gave soldiers a way to get rid of their pent-up energy or to relieve their boring daily routine.
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S, a reservist who served in northern Gaza, said some soldiers "want to experience the event [fully]." S often fired a few bullets for no reason, and these incidents were reported as "normal fire," a codename for "I’m bored, so I shoot."
B, another soldier who served in the regular forces in Gaza for several months, including in his battalion’s command center, explained that they had "total freedom of action." In Gaza, Israeli soldiers were free to shoot even if they only had "a feeling of threat."
B added that when soldiers see someone approaching, they are allowed "to shoot at their center of mass [their body], not into the air." The soldiers could shoot anyone, from a young girl to an old woman.
In Gaza, every man between 16-50 is "suspected of being a terrorist"
B also explained that it was often difficult to distinguish civilians from combatants in Gaza because Hamas members usually walked around "without their weapons." However, this meant every man "between the ages of 16 and 50 is suspected of being a terrorist."
Because it is forbidden to walk around the area, soldiers consider anyone who is outside suspicious. The army believes that any contact with the population endangers soldiers, and a situation must be created in which it is forbidden to approach them under any circumstances.
B added that this taught the Palestinians to run away if soldiers entered an area.
Soldiers also engaged in extensive shooting even in areas that are seemingly unpopulated or abandoned areas of Gaza in a procedure called "demonstrating presence."
S said some of his fellow soldiers would shoot their guns, even without a valid reason. He added that sometimes, soldiers would shoot to flush out anyone who could be hiding.
M, another reservist who served in the Gaza Strip, said these orders would come directly from company or battalion commanders in the field. M added that if there weren't other IDF forces in the area, soldiers would engage in "very unrestricted" shooting using small arms, machine guns, tanks and mortars.
Even without orders from above, M said soldiers in the field regularly take the law into their own hands and get permission to shoot.
S said he once heard over the radio about a soldier stationed in a protective compound who shot a Palestinian family walking nearby. The soldier first said there were "four people."
But S said the family was made up of two adults and two children.
The only soldier interviewed willing to be identified by name was Yuval Green, a 26-year-old reservist from Jerusalem.
Green, who served in the 55th Paratroopers Brigade in November and December 2023, recently signed a letter by 41 reservists announcing their refusal to continue serving in Gaza, following the army’s invasion of Rafah.
Green said there were also no restrictions on ammunition.
Presently, 324 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground invasion began. The army claims that at least 28 of them died by friendly fire.
Green said these incidents were the "main issue" endangering soldiers’ lives. He added the friendly fire stressed him out at times.
A, an officer who served in the army’s Operations Directorate, testified that his brigade’s operations room, which "coordinates the fighting from outside Gaza, approving targets and preventing friendly fire," did not receive clear open-fire orders to transmit to soldiers on the ground.
A explained that the soldiers weren't briefed, and no one received instructions from higher up to pass on to the soldiers and battalion commanders. A also said that while there were instructions not to shoot along humanitarian routes, in other areas soldiers had to "fill in the blanks."
Most of the time, soldiers operated under the assumption that if shooting was forbidden in one area, it could be permitted in another.
A explained that shooting at areas like clinics, hospitals, schools, religious institutions and buildings of international organizations required higher authorization. However, soldiers were rarely told not to shoot.
An IDF spokesperson who responded to a request for comment sent the following statement: "Open-fire instructions were given to all IDF soldiers fighting in the Gaza Strip and on the borders upon entering combat. These instructions reflect the international law to which the IDF is bound."
The spokesperson claimed that open-fire instructions are regularly reviewed and updated while considering the changing operational and intelligence situation and that they are "approved by the most senior officials in the IDF."
Visit IsraelCollapse.com for more updates about the ongoing conflict and genocide in Gaza.
Watch the video below as a displaced family from Gaza talks about their current living conditions.
This video is from the alltheworldsastage channel on Brighteon.com.
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