“It’s a field of extermination”-the area in which many Palestinians die while looking for food for the hungry Gaza, according to the complaint of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, published on Friday (27).
The complaint is based on some testimonials of soldiers and officers of Israel’s defense forces (FDI).
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz considered the complaint a “blood slander.” And in a joint statement, they wrote, “These are cruel lies designed to discredit the FDI – the most moral army in the world.” But the two had an investigation in the Army Staff Evaluation Mechanism.
Haaretz says: “Conversations with officers and soldiers reveal that commanders ordered the troops to shoot multitudes to push them away or dispersing them, although it was clear that they did not represent a threat. A soldier described the situation as a total collapse of the ethical codes of Israel’s defense forces in Gaza.”
The Hamas Ministry of Health featured 549 deaths near humanitarian aid centers, where Palestinians had expected humanitarian aid trucks since May 27. More than 4,000 were injured.
Haaretz says that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (FHG), created to replace UN organs in supplying gaza, was born “obscure” in a partnership between Israel, US evangelicals and private security contractors. FHG maintains four “fast distribution centers”, which open for one hour in the morning, but none of them to the north, forcing thousands of Palestinians to long hiking to the south at dawn.
“It’s a field of extermination,” a soldier told Haaretz. “Where I was positioned, they died from one to five people every day. They are treated as a hostile force, with no measures of multitude control, such as tear gas. Only living fire, with heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars … When the center opens, the shots stop. Our form of communication is fire.”
The soldier added: “There is no danger to the FDI. I am not aware of a single instance of fire return. There is no enemy or weapons.” A reservist explained that Gaza, with the war in Iran, “no longer interested in anyone … The loss of human life there means nothing. It is not even an unfortunate incident, as it was used to say.”
For an FDI officer, “working with a civilian population when its only means of interaction is to open fire-it is highly problematic, to say the least. It is neither ethical nor morally acceptable that people have to reach a humanitarian zone under fire of tanks, french-actors, and mortar cartridges.”
The FHG centers are protected by Americans in the runners in which the queues are formed, the outdoor area has Palestinian supervisors, some of them armed, and the security perimeter is with the FDI. “At night, we opened fire to signal to the population that here is a combat zone and that no one should approach. We shoot tanks and grenades. There was an incident in which a group of civilians was hit while advancing under the fog. It was not intentional, these things happen.”
An officer explained to Haaretz: “A combat brigade has no tools to deal with civilian population in a war zone. Shooting mortars to keep people hungry away is neither professional nor human. I know there are Hamas agents infiltrated between them, but there are also those who simply want to receive help. As a country we have the responsibility to ensure that it happens safely.”
Another complaint from Haaretz: “Today, any private contractor, with engineering equipment, receives $ 1,500 ($ 8,231) for each demolish home. Some are doing fortune.”
Haaretz identifies the brigadeiro general Yehuda Vach, commander of the 252 division of the FDI, as one of the suspects of sorting live fire to disperse Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid. He is also suspected of ordering the destruction of a hospital in Gaza without permission. “The vach division would not be the only one that operates in the area (from the FHG), and so it may be that other officers have ordered shots at civilians seeking help.”
A soldier told Haaretz, “You know it’s not right. You feel it’s not right – that the commanders here are taking the law in your own hands. But Gaza is a parallel universe.”
Earlier this week, soldiers from the 252 division opened fire on civilians who expected the humanitarian aid trucks. Eight died, including teenagers. The incident was taken to the head of the Southern Command, Major General Yaniv Asor, who, in addition to a preliminary review, took no other action or required any explanation of General Vach to the high number of deaths in his sector.
“My biggest fear is that shooting and damage to Gaza’s civilians are not the result of operational necessity or bad judgment, but the product of an ideology maintained by field commanders.”
The FDI responded to the complaint of the Haaretz newspaper stating that “it strongly rejects the accusation” – and that “the FDI did not instruct the soldiers to deliberately shoot civilians, including those approaching the distribution centers. To be clear, the FDI guidelines prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians.”
The joint statement of Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz adds: “The FDI operate under difficult conditions against a terrorist enemy that operates from within the civilian population … and has a lies industry to undermine the legitimacy of the state of Israel.” In conclusion, they ask “democratic countries that support Israel in their deadly struggle against Hamas’s murderous terrorists.”
