'I know what we did in Gaza': IOF reservist refusing to rejoin service
7 Min Read
After witnessing the harrowing war crimes committed by the Israeli army in Gaza, one reservist said, "I can’t justify this military operation anymore."
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A paramedic carries a Palestinian child wounded during Israeli bombardment to the emergency ward at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on July 9, 2024. (AFP)
Three Israeli reserve soldiers who had participated in the ongoing Israeli genocidal carnage in Gaza describe entering homes without military justification, stealing, and then burning them down, causing more killings, shooting children, and even killing their own captives. These actions, according to their testimonies, have led them to renounce their service in the Israeli military.
It's a familiar story: Israeli soldiers are openly admitting to shooting to kill and demolishing everything in their path. Amid the ongoing genocide, these atrocities are unfolding live and unabated.
This rescue volunteer could not compose himself any longer, he collapsed crying while removing a girl from under the rubble in Gaza.
— ADAM (@AdameMedia) July 27, 2024
💔 pic.twitter.com/tM4GvjnaaY
Earlier this month, six Israeli soldiers presented harrowing testimonies as they recounted how their fellow soldiers routinely executed Palestinian civilians to release pent-up frustration or alleviate boredom.
For Israeli military paramedic Yuval Green, the order to burn down a house was the tipping point that led him to end his reserve duty. Earlier this year, Green spent 50 days in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza, with his paratrooper unit. They slept in a house illuminated only by battery-powered fairy lights amid the rubble and destruction.
Green began questioning the unit’s mission months earlier when he learned about "Israel's" refusal to meet Hamas’ demands to end the war and release captives.
Green is among three Israeli reservists who told The Observer they would not return if called for military service in Gaza. All three previously completed compulsory military service in the Israeli occupation forces (IOF), which is a central part of the Israeli settler communities.
'Burn it down'
The destructive behavior Green witnessed from other soldiers only intensified the doubts he had brought with him to Gaza, as the indefinite cycle of violence he witnessed. He explained that he stayed out of a sense of duty to care for those in his unit, comrades he had known since his years of compulsory military service.
Gaza city |
— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) February 10, 2024
An Israeli-Filipino soldier Aaron Rafael stationed in Rimal Neighborhood, west Gaza City, posts a TikTok video hours ago showing him looting Palestinian homes & stealing expensive watches. pic.twitter.com/6wBM613IK2
“I saw soldiers graffiting houses or stealing all the time. They would go into a house for a military reason, looking for weapons, but it was more fun to look for souvenirs – they had a thing for necklaces with Arabic writing that they collected,” Green told The Observer.
Then, early this year, he said, “We were given an order. We were inside a house and our commander ordered us to burn it down.”
"GTA 6 Leak"
— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) June 12, 2024
An Israeli occupation soldier posts footage of his brigade bombing and indiscriminately shooting at Palestinian houses in Gaza, gloatingly presenting it as if it were a video game. pic.twitter.com/wsScXyLaBn
When he brought up the issue with his company commander, he added, “The answers he gave me were not good enough. I said: ‘If we’re doing all of this for no reason, I’m not going to participate.’ I left the next day.”
"Israel" has left extensive casualties —ranging from at least 39,000 to 186,000 Palestinians, mainly children and women. Thousands more are believed to be buried beneath the rubble, with at least 90,000 wounded, and the overwhelming majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million population forcibly displaced. Meanwhile, observers fear that "Israel" could wage a full-blown aggression against Lebanon.
Two of the reservists mentioned that they might be compelled to return to service if the near-daily exchange of drone attacks, airstrikes, and artillery fire between "Israel" and Lebanon escalates into a full-fledged war.
All three soldiers cite different motivations for their decision not to serve in Gaza again, ranging from dissatisfaction with how the Israeli military is conducting the war to frustration with the government’s reluctance to agree to a deal that could end the fighting.
These three reservists speaking publicly about their unwillingness to return to service represent a minority, partly because military refusal in "Israel" is generally considered illegal.
Last month, 41 reserve soldiers signed an open letter declaring that they would no longer serve in the military's assault on Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.
“The half year in which we took part in the war effort has proven to us that military action alone will not bring the hostages home. Every day that passes endangers the lives of the hostages and the soldiers still in Gaza, and does not restore security to those living on the Gaza and northern borders,” they wrote.
'All this is doing is causing more death on our side or the Palestinian side'
Civics teacher Tal Vardi, who trained reserve tank operators in northern "Israel" during his recent time back in the military, said, “Any reasonable person can see that the military presence is not helping to bring the hostages back.”
“So if we’re not bringing back the hostages, all this is doing is causing more death on our side or the Palestinian side … I can’t justify this military operation anymore. I’m unwilling to be part of a military that’s doing this,” he stressed.
“If anything, some of these operations have endangered the hostages, and the army has also killed some by mistake,” he said, referencing an incident last December when Israeli forces shot dead three captives in Gaza who had approached them waving white flags.
“It was bound to happen,” said reservist Michael Ofer Ziv, who explained that the incident evoked in him a strong conviction that once he completed his military service on the Gaza border, he would not return.
'Destroy Gaza'
Ziv returned to the Israeli military days after October 7 to serve as an operations officer, which required him to spend long hours watching a live drone feed from a small section of the enclave. This meant days at a time observing daily Palestinian life, watching as stray dogs or cars crossed bombed-out streets.
“Suddenly, you see a building go up, or a car you’ve been following for an hour suddenly disappear into a cloud of smoke. It feels unreal,” he said. “Some were happy to see this, as it meant seeing us destroy Gaza.”
“We almost always got approval to shoot,” he said. The approval process with the air forces, he added, “was mainly bureaucracy."
He was also troubled by what he described as a lack of clarity for soldiers regarding the rules of engagement. He noted that these rules were far more explicit during his compulsory military service and felt that the rules during this war were much looser than anything he had previously experienced.
“After they shot the three hostages last December, I tried to remember if I ever saw a document like this – I was supposed to,” he stressed. “I was sure there was a briefing to the soldiers, but without having any documents to lean on, it’s unclear what people understood.”
Ziv recalled an incident where his unit lost track of an injured Palestinian child at a checkpoint. Such events, he said, made him question his role in the war and the overall purpose of the fighting.
It is worth noting that "Israel" has killed more than 17,000 children over the past nine months. Some have been cut into pieces, and others have been beheaded or burnt alive in their tents.
The decision to invade Rafah instead of sealing a deal confirmed for him that he would not return to the Israeli military. When he was recently called upon to do so, he told his commanding officer that he could not come back.
"............But I’m not willing to participate in this, as I don’t trust the government and what they’re trying to do,” he stressed.
He added, “If something happens in the north, there’s a chance I’d go, but on other hand, I know what it might be like. I know what we did in Gaza – there’s no reason to believe we’d act any differently in Lebanon.”
Read more: Israeli aggression on southern Lebanese town kills four family members
