Report: Israeli soldiers allowed to shoot Palestinians ‘virtually at will’ during operations in Gaza

Gaza Strip (QNN)- A new investigation by Israeli outlets +972 Magazine and Local Call has found that Israeli occupation soldiers have been shooting Palestinians, including civilians “virtually at will” during their operations in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli soldiers told the outlets of near-total absence of firing regulations, “with troops shooting as they please, setting homes ablaze, and leaving corpses on the streets” all with their commanders’ blessings.

“There was total freedom of action,” B., an anonymous soldier who served in Gaza, said. “If there is [even] a feeling of threat, there is no need to explain — you just shoot.”

B. said that when someone is approaching “it is permissible to shoot at their center of mass [their body], not into the air. It’s permissible to shoot everyone, a young girl, an old woman.”

Even when dealing with Israeli detainees in Gaza, soldiers “didn’t have a specific directive”, as the incident in which the forces accidentally killed three Israeli detainees did not cause any significant changes to the open-fire regulations.

Soldiers even freely fired at civilians entering so-called “no-go zones”, and their corpses are often left to rot, only removed ahead of the arrival of humanitarian aid convoys so that “images of people in advanced stages of decay don’t come out”.

Only one of the soldiers interviewed for this investigation was willing to be identified by name: Yuval Green, a 26-year-old reservist who served in the 55th Paratroopers Brigade in November and December last year (Green recently signed a letter by 41 reservists declaring their refusal to continue serving in Gaza, following the army’s invasion of Rafah).

“There were no restrictions on ammunition,” Green told +972 and Local Call. “People were shooting just to relieve the boredom.”

“We destroyed everything we wanted to,” Green testified. “This is not out of a desire to destroy, but out of total indifference to everything that belongs to [Palestinians]. Every day, a D-9 demolishes houses. I haven’t taken before-and-after photos, but I’ll never forget how a neighborhood that was really beautiful … is reduced to sand.”