US-Israeli soldier’s videos reveal war crimes in Gaza
By
Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Guardian
4 Aug 2024 13:56
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With thousands of Americans serving in IOF, the documented misconduct by these soldiers raises significant concerns for US officials, particularly those in genocidal wars funded and supported by Washington.
,,,,,,Screenshots from videos posted by Israeli soldiers show them burning and blowing up Palestinian homes. (@ytirawi /X)
US-Israeli IOF soldier, Bram Settenbrino, who is participating in the Israeli genocidal carnage in Gaza with a combat engineering unit of the Israeli occupation forces, shared online videos depicting indiscriminate firing at a destroyed building, as well as the demolition of homes and a mosque.
The Guardian reported on Settenbrino's case, highlighting a familiar pattern: Israeli soldiers openly admit in social media videos to shooting to kill and demolishing everything in their path. Amid the ongoing genocide, these atrocities are occurring live and without interruption.
A flashback
A former Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) reservist, Yuval Green, 26, recalled on Friday serious misconduct by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza, including the destruction of homes and looting, motivated by a desire "for revenge", in an interview for CNN.
Last month, three Israeli reserve soldiers, including Green, who had participated in the ongoing Israeli genocidal carnage in Gaza, described entering homes without military justification, looting, and then burning them down, shooting children, and even killing captives. These actions, according to their testimonies, have led them to renounce their service in the Israeli military.
This came after 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.
Bombing civilian infrastructure 'to honor a friend's new marriage'
One video, taken from the shooter’s perspective, shows numerous rounds being fired into the ruins of a building, The Guardian reported. Another video appears to show an armored vehicle’s fire-control system targeting a mosque before it is demolished. Additional footage captures the destruction of several homes while soldiers cheer in the background.
It is worth noting that the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and Settenbrino have not disputed their authenticity. The videos recently went viral on X, leading to accusations of war crimes. Settenbrino claimed, in a message for The Guardian, "I have not committed any war crimes whatsoever."
🚨 Bram Settenbrino shared these videos of himself indiscriminately shooting a gun and blowing up a mosque
In yet another shocking revelation, the soldier’s father said his son had “sent a congratulatory video dedicating a detonation to honor a friend’s new marriage”.
Why it matters
During the 10-month war, Israeli occupation soldiers have shared numerous videos showing themselves mocking Palestinians in Gaza and destroying Palestinian property. Some of these videos have been used as evidence in the genocide case against "Israel" at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Since the war began, "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.
Moments before an Israeli military vehicle ran over a dead Palestinian body back in December.
With thousands of Americans serving in the IOF, the documented misconduct by soldiers raises troubling questions for US officials regarding their willingness to enforce federal law against American citizens involved in an overseas genocidal war funded and supported by the US government.
A law crime under US law!
The widespread destruction of property, when "not justified by military necessity and conducted unlawfully and indiscriminately," constitutes a breach of international war regulations and qualifies as a war crime under US law.
According to Brian Finucane, a former legal advisor at the US Department of State, the US has a responsibility to uphold the Geneva Conventions, a set of international treaties that govern armed war.
“If US citizens are violating the Geneva Conventions or committing war crimes in Israel and Palestine, that implicates the US’s obligations,” he told The Guardian.
He added that under the federal War Crimes Act, the US has the authority to prosecute individuals for war crimes if either the victim or the perpetrator is a US citizen, or if the perpetrators, regardless of their nationality, are present on US soil.
The video showing the destruction of the mosque is dated December 10, around the time when Settenbrino’s unit was deployed in northern Gaza. According to Palestinian officials, Israeli invasion forces have partially or fully destroyed over 500 mosques in the strip since October 7.
Rights groups have urged the Biden administration to investigate the crimes committed in Gaza as potential violations of US law. Prior to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the US last week, the Center for Constitutional Rights called on the US Department of Justice to investigate Netanyahu and others implicated in serious crimes in Gaza, including those who may be US or dual US citizens.
Khan Younis last night |
“We have here a little petrol on the bed, on the closet.. Give me a small touch on the stove.. here..I’m lighting it!”
Israeli soldiers puring fuel all over a Palestinian building before burning it down last night pic.twitter.com/6j5ONziowh
Brad Parker, CCR’s associate director of policy said as quoted by The Guardian, “Federal criminal statutes prohibit and criminalize genocide, war crimes, and torture, among other serious international crimes.
“US officials, government employees approving or facilitating continued weapons transfers to Israel, and individual US citizens currently serving active-duty roles in the Israeli military should definitely be concerned about their own individual criminal responsibility,” he stressed.
23,380 US citizens serve in the Israeli military
Approximately 23,380 US citizens serve in the Israeli military, according to the Washington Post. One of them is Settenbrino who has been stationed in Gaza since the onset of the war with the Handasah Kravit, the IOF’s engineering corps. Raised in New Jersey as an Eagle Scout, he relocated to "Israel" as a teenager and is now among an estimated 600,000 US citizens settling there.
Israeli soldiers from Germany, US, UK, Ethiopia, Ukraine fighting in Gaza
Last year, he was honored with an "Outstanding Soldier of the Year" award from his division, according to his father, Randy Settenbrino, who has written about his son in op-eds for Israeli and Jewish publications.
Settenbrino’s videos first appeared online in July through a prominent X account named Younis Tirawi, which frequently posts videos shared by Israeli occupation soldiers.
‘Destroying homes is a day-to-day activity’
Israeli soldiers have also circulated videos showing themselves with children’s toys and women’s underwear, burning Palestinian food supplies, and rounding up and blindfolding civilians. Another video recently shared by Tirawi, originally posted by a member of Settenbrino’s unit, depicted the deliberate destruction of a water facility in Rafah.
Gaza city |
Israeli soldiers displaying lingerie belonging to killed/displaced Palestinian women in the city
All are sergeants (or rank above) from the special recon unit of the Golani brigade pic.twitter.com/eW3WWL5MpN
Additionally, a video featuring an IOF soldier commenting on a large explosion in Gaza City—saying, “Shuja’iyya neighborhood gone … peace to Shuja’iyya”—was presented to the ICJ in January as part of the genocide case brought by South Africa against "Israel", with other similar videos referenced during the proceedings.
Rafah | Rafah’s water reservoir blown up
Israeli soldier from the combat engineering corps sharing footage on his personal account blowing Rafah’s water reservoir in Tel Sultan neighborhood “in honor of Shabbat” as he describes it. pic.twitter.com/bpCghkOWeQ
“There is now a trend among the soldiers to film themselves committing atrocities against civilians in Gaza, in a form of ‘snuff’ video,” the South African lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said in the ICJ. He cited examples of soldiers recording themselves destroying houses and declaring their intent to “erase Gaza” or “destroy Khan Younis” – potential evidence of genocidal intent.
“The vast number of such videos online demonstrates that the military leadership isn’t even trying to discipline the rank and file,” said Joel Carmel, a member of the Israeli veterans group Breaking the Silence, as quoted by the Guardian.
He added, “More importantly, the issue is less about the videos themselves and more about what it says about the way we fight in Gaza. Destroying homes and places of worship is a day-to-day activity for soldiers in Gaza – it is the opposite of the ‘surgical’ strikes on carefully chosen targets that we are told about by the IDF.”
The question of whether the US would prosecute American citizens fighting for "Israel" is as much a matter of politics as it is of law, as per The Guardian's report.
“The US government could prosecute these US citizens if they participate in war crimes,” Oona Hathaway, director of the Center for Global Legal Challenges at Yale Law School, said as quoted by The Guardian. “Politically, however, that’s unlikely, for all the obvious reasons.”
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