“The troops in the field call this the ‘column of bodies,'” the commander of the 252nd Division told Haaretz. “After the shooting, the bodies are not recovered and packs of dogs gather to eat them. In Gaza, wherever you see these dogs, people are told that they should not go there. known.”
“The division commander has designated this area as a ‘kill zone,'” another senior officer in the unit told the newspaper. Anyone who enters will be shot. ”
One 252nd Division veteran said, “For the division, the killing zone extends as far as the snipers can see. We kill civilians there, and then they are counted as terrorists. Casualties. “The IDF spokesperson’s announcement regarding numbers has turned this into a competition between soldiers.” If Troop 99 kills 150, the next squad will aim for 200. ”
The commander of the 252nd Division said that of the 200 “militants” the IDF said his unit had killed, “only 10 were confirmed as known Hamas operatives. Still, hundreds of “No one questioned the announcement that he had killed another militant.”
“Calling ourselves the most moral army in the world absolves soldiers who know exactly what they are doing,” the senior reserve commander argued.
“That means ignoring the fact that for more than a year we have been operating in a lawless zone where human life has no value,” he added. “Yes, we commanders and fighters are participating in the atrocities unfolding in Gaza. Now everyone must face this reality.”
“Calling ourselves the most moral army in the world is absolving our soldiers who know exactly what we’re doing.”
Another 252nd Division veteran described a time when “the guards spotted someone coming up” and “we responded as if it were a large-scale insurgent attack.” Ta.
“We just took position and opened fire. I’m talking dozens of rounds, probably more,” he continued. “For about a minute or two we continued to shoot at the body. People around us were laughing as they fired.”
The soldier continued:
We approached the bloody body, took photos and grabbed our phones. He was only a boy of about 16 years old. That night, our battalion commander congratulated us on killing the terrorists and said he expected to kill 10 more tomorrow. When someone pointed out that he was unarmed and looked like a civilian, everyone yelled at him. “Anyone who crosses the line is a terrorist, there are no exceptions, and there are no civilians,” the commander said. All are terrorists. ”This bothered me very much. Was it necessary to leave home and sleep in a rat-infested building for this? How to shoot an unarmed person?
One 99th Division reservist recalled seeing a video from a drone that showed “an adult and two children crossing a forbidden line.”
“We had them under full surveillance with drones and weapons, but we couldn’t do anything to them,” he said. “Suddenly, we heard a huge explosion. A combat helicopter was firing missiles at them. Who would think it was justified to fire missiles at children? And in a helicopter? This is pure It’s evil.”
Soldiers who served in the 252nd Division talked about the first speech given by Brigadier General John. Gen. Yehuda Vaha took command of the force last summer and told his troops, “There are no innocents in Gaza,” according to a veteran who was present.
“In the Middle East, victory comes by conquering territory,” Waha said, according to an eyewitness. “You have to keep conquering until you win.”
“Who would think it’s justified to fire missiles at children? And in helicopters? This is pure evil.”
One officer said Mr. Waha was obsessed with carrying out the so-called General Plan, a blueprint for starvation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in northern Gaza, and sought to forcefully expel 250,000 people from the area.
In response to the Haaretz article, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that “the attack is aimed solely at military objectives, and before an attack is carried out, a number of measures are taken to minimize damage to non-combatants.” did.
However, the testimony published by Haaretz is consistent with many others provided by IDF soldiers and veterans, Palestinian survivors and witnesses, and international medical personnel working in Gaza. There is.
Earlier this year, South Africa, which is leading a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, cited “testimony from Israeli soldiers who served in Gaza that Israeli soldiers were treating the evacuation zone as a ‘zone of refuge'” in court. filed an emergency request. In “extermination” all remaining Palestinians are considered legitimate targets. ”
American trauma surgeons who volunteered at the European Hospital in Khan Yunis said, “A 3-year-old boy was shot in the head, and a 12-year-old girl was shot in the chest and taken to the intensive care unit.” described “horrific violence deliberately directed against civilians”. The nurse was shot in the abdomen, all by some of the most trained shooters in the world. ”
Palestinian survivors said IDF troops and drones killed young children and people carrying white flags. Rescue workers and journalists who tried to document the incident were also killed.
These are more than 45,000 Palestinians killed and 107,000 killed since Israel launched the Gaza war in retaliation for the Hamas-led uprising on October 7, 2023, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. More than 1,000 people are some of the injured. attack.
On Thursday, international medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières and Human Rights Watch condemned acts of genocide or outright genocide by UN experts, human rights groups including Amnesty International, and governments of more than a dozen countries. He joined thousands of scholars, jurists, and others to do so. In Gaza.
