Israeli soldiers discuss their war crimes in new documentary

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Guardian
Today 13:07
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IOF soldiers testify to Gaza civilian killings, human shield use, and arbitrary targeting in the Breaking Ranks documentary, exposing their war crimes.

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Israeli troops move with armored personnel carriers near the Gaza border on Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli occupation troops have come forward with detailed accounts of their war crimes in Gaza, describing the collapse of rules of engagement within the ranks of the Israeli occupation forces. Their testimonies appear in Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War, a television documentary set to air on ITV in the UK.

“If you want to shoot without restraint, you can,” said Daniel, commander of a tank unit, in the film. His and others’ testimonies point to a disregard for legal constraints and a dehumanizing approach to Palestinian civilians, particularly men aged between 20 and 40, who were broadly treated as combatants.

Some soldiers spoke anonymously, while others appeared on record, all explaining how Israeli soldiers treated Palestinians.

They confirmed the Israeli occupation forces’ use of Palestinians as human shields, and shared accounts of troops opening fire on civilians attempting to reach food distribution sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Breaking Ranks reveals institutional oversight

“In basic training for the army, we all chanted ‘means, intent and ability’,” Israeli Capt Yotam Vilk said in the movie, referring to the Israeli military’s engagement criteria. “There’s no such thing as ‘means, intent and ability’ in Gaza,” he said. “It’s just: a suspicion of walking where it’s not allowed. A man aged between 20 and 40.”

Another soldier, identified only as Eli, said in the documentary that battlefield decisions were dictated solely by the judgment of commanding officers. “Life and death isn’t determined by procedures or opening fire regulations. It’s the conscience of the commander on the ground that decides.”

He recounted an incident where a man was targeted while hanging laundry on a rooftop in an area designated safe for civilians. “The officer decided that he was a spotter… And the tank fired a shell. The building half collapsed. And the result was many dead and wounded.”

According to an August analysis by The Guardian using Israeli occupation forces’ intelligence data, 83% of those killed in Gaza were civilians, though the occupation disputed the findings.

Human shield tactic known as ‘mosquito protocol’ confirmed

Multiple testimonies in Breaking Ranks corroborate previous reports of the use of civilians as human shields, a practice informally known among Israeli soldiers as the “mosquito protocol.”

“You send the human shield underground… He has an iPhone in his vest, and as he walks, it sends back GPS information,” said Daniel, the tank commander. “The commanders saw how it works. And the practice spread like wildfire. After about a week, every company was operating its own mosquito.”

The program also includes the testimony of Sam, a contractor at "aid distribution points" run by the GHF, in which hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by gunfire while attempting to procure food for their starving families.

He described in the documentary that Israeli occupation soldiers shot two unarmed men running for food. “They drop onto their knees and they just take two shots… two heads snap backwards and just drop,” he said. In another incident, a tank destroyed a civilian car carrying four people.

Both the Israeli occupation and the GHF have denied deliberately targeting civilians at these locations, claims that have been disputed by journalists and international investigations.

Some soldiers said they had been influenced by inflammatory rhetoric from Israeli political and religious figures. The UN has cited such incitement in its September genocide finding against the Israeli occupation.

Among those quoted was Israeli president Isaac Herzog, who said after the October 7 operation by members of the Palestinian Resistance, “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible… it’s absolutely not true [that civilians are uninvolved].”

IOF Major Neta Caspin recounted a brigade rabbi telling him to seek revenge on all Palestinians, stating that the rabbi said “we must take revenge on all of them, including civilians. That we shouldn’t discriminate.”

Rabbi Avraham Zarbiv, an extremist cleric who served over 500 days in Gaza, said in the documentary, “Everything there is one big terrorist infrastructure.” He also claimed credit for driving bulldozers and helping implement a mass demolition strategy. “We changed the conduct of an entire army,” he said.