“The result is a vast cache that gives a rare and troubling view of how some elements of the Israeli military have conducted themselves during one of the most deadly and destructive wars in recent memory.”
Over the past 14 months, Israeli soldiers posted thousands of photos and videos online of the demolition, looting and torching of homes, schools, and other buildings in the Gaza Strip, creating a “vast cache” of their conduct during the war, the Washington Post has reported.
In other visuals, Israeli soldiers are seen posing next to bodies of slain Palestinians as they call for their extermination and expulsion, the investigative report titled ‘Revenge, fire and destruction: A year of Israeli soldiers’ videos from Gaza,’ has revealed.
Although the Israeli military ordered troops “not to film and post ‘revenge’ videos, they have continued to appear online throughout the war,” the report said.
“The result is a vast cache that gives a rare and troubling view of how some elements of the Israeli military have conducted themselves during one of the most deadly and destructive wars in recent memory,” it added.
Verification of Videos, Images
The Post verified videos and images “that were recorded or shared by soldiers on their social media accounts by using locations, uniforms, equipment, graffiti and phrases heard in the videos to confirm they were filmed in Gaza during this war.”
A Washington Post investigation reveals an archive of photos and videos released by Israeli soldiers on social media, mocking Palestinians whose homes they destroyed, effectively documenting war crimes. #GazaStrip#Palestine https://t.co/wYks2aMpwD
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) December 3, 2024
“These details were then cross-referenced against official IDF reports on Israeli units operating in areas of Gaza seen in the videos. Whenever possible, reporters identified soldiers in the visuals and reached out to them for comment. The credits for the videos were given to the social media account from which the videos were taken,” said the report.
The visuals and witness accounts indicate a war “where some soldiers have engaged in battlefield excesses.”
“In some cases — such as the torching of homes — soldiers said they were following direct orders,” the report found.
The Israeli army told The Post that it had conducted “disciplinary talks” with some of the soldiers involved due to incidents that “deviated from IDF values and principles and contradicted regulations.” It did not provide further details.
Criminal Misconduct
Cases in which there was a suspicion of criminal misconduct, were referred to the military police, the army claimed, but described such behavior as “exceptional incidents.”
The Israeli military “has tried to clamp down on controversial videos amid concerns they could contribute to ongoing investigations of Israel at the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.”
🚨🚨🚨 “Revenge, fire and destruction”
In a detailed article titled “Revenge, fire and destruction” The Washington Post has revealed documentation from the Gaza Strip, posted by IDF soldiers on social media. The newspaper described it as “a vast repository providing a disturbing… pic.twitter.com/PSz8v5Hgqj
— OSINT observer (@dopaminedealers) December 4, 2024
In February, the army’s Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi wrote a letter urging soldiers not to loot or “shoot revenge videos,” resulting in fewer posts appearing online in recent months. “But new examples continue to emerge,” said the report.
The Post said that legal experts who reviewed videos compiled by the paper “said in the most egregious cases soldiers are effectively logging evidence of possible violations of international humanitarian law.”
‘No Regrets’
The paper said it had verified multiple videos and photos that “showed soldiers setting buildings on fire or posing in front of houses in flames, incidents that spanned from Beit Hanoun in the north to Khan Younis in the south.”
Some soldiers who posted videos and photos on social media were “unapologetic or said they didn’t think soldiers were mocking or humiliating anyone,” the report noted.
We expected to have to dedicate considerable resources to identify the Israeli soldiers in photos and videos featured in our investigation into war crimes in Gaza.
But we found that soldiers often posted material in their own names on publicly accessible platforms.#GazaCrimes pic.twitter.com/b18KR1F7xN
— Al Jazeera Investigations (@AJIunit) November 22, 2024
Shimon Zuckerman is one of those soldiers. He posted videos showing the detonations of at least a couple dozen buildings in Gaza last year, the report said.
Stating that the army had told him to stop posting online earlier this year, Zuckerman said “I took these videos to raise the morale of the people at home, and I don’t regret it for a moment.”
‘Lots of Fun’
Soldiers who spoke to The Post said when they would leave a house “they told us when we came out of it, to burn it down.” One solder, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the practice took place “from the beginning” of the war.
He said soldiers “would pile up furniture in the middle of a room, douse it with flammables and set it alight,” starting on the top floors and working their way down.
A new Al Jazeera documentary from the network’s investigations team reveals rampant Israeli war crimes in Gaza over the past year, mainly using footage shot by Israeli soldiers themselves. “They brag about it,” says correspondent @YoumnaElSayed17. pic.twitter.com/O3AALERIf4
— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) October 9, 2024
“They just had lots of fun from doing it,” he said. “When you’ve spent so much time there, you stop thinking about the Palestinians who live in this house, and the Palestinians who will live there in the future.”
He said his unit had set fire “to at least twenty homes over the course of his five month deployment.”
According to a UNOSAT assessment published on September 29, around 66 percent of total structures in Gaza have been damaged, including and a total of 227,591 housing units, the report noted.
Mocking by Soldiers
The Post also verified visuals showing soldiers “setting up camp in abandoned homes, vandalizing property and posing for pictures with undergarments stolen from Palestinian women. In some, soldiers made light of the widespread destruction.”
The report said that according to experts, “videos that depict the mistreatment of detainees and corpses also raise concerns under international law,” such as the documentation via several videos of large groups of Palestinian men who were rounded up in a mass arrest campaign in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, in early December.
Israeli Sergeant Nadav, from the 7107th Combat Engineering Battalion ‘Raz,’ documented and shared on social media his experience of participating in the decimation and destruction of displaced Palestinians’ homes during the Gaza genocide. pic.twitter.com/YjGpNEEp7g
— Israel Genocide Tracker (@trackingisrael) November 28, 2024
“In one video filmed just days after the ground invasion began, soldiers pull a dead corpse behind a vehicle. In another, which emerged early this year, a soldier mockingly advertises a family business near what appear to be Palestinian’s corpses,” the report stated.
Other videos have captured soldiers calling “for the return of Israeli settlers to Gaza, or the expulsion of Palestinians.” An image verified by The Post showed a soldier “holding an Israeli flag emblazoned with the words ‘Returning home’ — the slogan of the resettlement movement.”
The paper said that some videos shot by Israeli soldiers “have already been used by South Africa in its genocide case against Israel at the ICJ,” adding that “It could take years for a final ruling to come down.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
