|
testimony catalog number: 402198
unit: Infantry
area: Southern Gaza strip
period: 2014
There was a force that identified two figures walking in an orchard, around 800 or 900 meters from the force’s zone perimeter. They were two young women walking in the orchard. The commander asked to confirm, “What do you see,” and whether they were incriminated or not.
It was during daytime, around 11:00 AM, or noon. The lookouts couldn’t see well so the commander sent a drone up to look from above, and the drone implicated them. It saw them with phones, talking, walking. They directed fire there, on those girls, and they were killed. After they were implicated, I had a feeling it was bullshit.
On what was the incrimination based?
Scouts. “The [Palestinian girls] can surely see the tanks, and they can surely see the smoke rising from all the engineering work.” After that the commander told the tank commander to go scan that place, and three tanks went to check [the bodies]. They check the bodies, and it was two women, over age 30. The bodies of two women, and they were unarmed. He came back and we moved on, and they were listed as terrorists. They were fired at – so of course, they must have been terrorists…
unit: Infantry
area: Southern Gaza strip
period: 2014
There was a force that identified two figures walking in an orchard, around 800 or 900 meters from the force’s zone perimeter. They were two young women walking in the orchard. The commander asked to confirm, “What do you see,” and whether they were incriminated or not.
It was during daytime, around 11:00 AM, or noon. The lookouts couldn’t see well so the commander sent a drone up to look from above, and the drone implicated them. It saw them with phones, talking, walking. They directed fire there, on those girls, and they were killed. After they were implicated, I had a feeling it was bullshit.
On what was the incrimination based?
Scouts. “The [Palestinian girls] can surely see the tanks, and they can surely see the smoke rising from all the engineering work.” After that the commander told the tank commander to go scan that place, and three tanks went to check [the bodies]. They check the bodies, and it was two women, over age 30. The bodies of two women, and they were unarmed. He came back and we moved on, and they were listed as terrorists. They were fired at – so of course, they must have been terrorists…
- This testimony appears under these categories: Deaths, Rules of engagement
- This testimony can also be read in Hebrew
testimony catalog number: 679071
rank: Staff Sergeant
unit: Infantry
area: Northern Gaza strip
period: 2014
During the first entrance [to the Gaza Strip] we were near Beit Lahia, in a place called the Bedou’iyya. We were there for a few days. When we got there, there were white flags on all the rooftops. We had been prepared for something very… For some very glorious combat, and in the end it was quiet. We set ourselves up in our spot and slowly, slowly, [the Palestinians] started returning.
At one point early on an older woman came near, and one of the officers said she should be shot. They told him to fire [warning shots] in her direction, and after a few shots she backed off. Later on, lots of people with white flags came over and [warning] shots were fired near them, too.
What’s ‘near them?’
I don’t know exactly how many meters away. There wasn’t a cease-fire, because during cease-fires we would be taken out and stationed in the protective ramparts [that were set up] between the Strip and Israel.
So why were [warning] shots fired near those people?
So that they wouldn’t pose a threat to us.
What distance were they from you?
Far off – about 100 meters. [We] didn’t want to take the risk that they would even get close.
And to where were they trying to walk?
They were returning to their homes, that’s why they were holding up those flags… This was a very poor neighborhood. You could tell by looking at their animals, too – they were really bony. They were locked up, the animals, so they didn’t have any food. And there was another guy, when we entered the house he was just sitting there. [The soldiers] cuffed his arms and legs and tied a cloth around his eyes and he sat there for like a whole day.
What happened after that?
We were told that he was taken to be investigated. Him and the cellphone he had with him.
rank: Staff Sergeant
unit: Infantry
area: Northern Gaza strip
period: 2014
During the first entrance [to the Gaza Strip] we were near Beit Lahia, in a place called the Bedou’iyya. We were there for a few days. When we got there, there were white flags on all the rooftops. We had been prepared for something very… For some very glorious combat, and in the end it was quiet. We set ourselves up in our spot and slowly, slowly, [the Palestinians] started returning.
At one point early on an older woman came near, and one of the officers said she should be shot. They told him to fire [warning shots] in her direction, and after a few shots she backed off. Later on, lots of people with white flags came over and [warning] shots were fired near them, too.
What’s ‘near them?’
I don’t know exactly how many meters away. There wasn’t a cease-fire, because during cease-fires we would be taken out and stationed in the protective ramparts [that were set up] between the Strip and Israel.
So why were [warning] shots fired near those people?
So that they wouldn’t pose a threat to us.
What distance were they from you?
Far off – about 100 meters. [We] didn’t want to take the risk that they would even get close.
And to where were they trying to walk?
They were returning to their homes, that’s why they were holding up those flags… This was a very poor neighborhood. You could tell by looking at their animals, too – they were really bony. They were locked up, the animals, so they didn’t have any food. And there was another guy, when we entered the house he was just sitting there. [The soldiers] cuffed his arms and legs and tied a cloth around his eyes and he sat there for like a whole day.
What happened after that?
We were told that he was taken to be investigated. Him and the cellphone he had with him.
- This testimony appears under these categories: House incursions/takeovers, Rules of engagement
- This testimony can also be read in Hebrew
testimony catalog number: 292305
rank: Staff Sergeant
unit: Mechanized infantry
area: Deir al-Balah area
period: 2014
By the time we got out of there, it was all like a sandbox. Every house we left – and we went through three or four houses – a D9 (armored bulldozer) came over and flattened it.
What does that look like?
First of all, it’s impressive seeing a D9 take down a big two-story house. We were in the area of a fairly rich, rural neighborhood – very impressive houses. We were in one spot where there was a house with a children’s residence unit next door – just like in a well-off Moshav (a type of rural town) in Israel.
The D9 would simply go in, take down part of the wall and then continue, take down another part of the wall, and leave only the columns intact. At a certain point it would push a pile of sand to create a mound of rubble and bring down other parts, until the house was eventually left stripped, and from that point it would simply hit the house [with its blade] until it collapsed. The D9 was an important working tool. It was working nearly non-stop.
rank: Staff Sergeant
unit: Mechanized infantry
area: Deir al-Balah area
period: 2014
By the time we got out of there, it was all like a sandbox. Every house we left – and we went through three or four houses – a D9 (armored bulldozer) came over and flattened it.
What does that look like?
First of all, it’s impressive seeing a D9 take down a big two-story house. We were in the area of a fairly rich, rural neighborhood – very impressive houses. We were in one spot where there was a house with a children’s residence unit next door – just like in a well-off Moshav (a type of rural town) in Israel.
The D9 would simply go in, take down part of the wall and then continue, take down another part of the wall, and leave only the columns intact. At a certain point it would push a pile of sand to create a mound of rubble and bring down other parts, until the house was eventually left stripped, and from that point it would simply hit the house [with its blade] until it collapsed. The D9 was an important working tool. It was working nearly non-stop.
- This testimony appears under these categories: House demolitions/razing, Rules of engagement
- This testimony can also be read in Hebrew
testimony catalog number: 282047
rank: Lieutenant
unit: Gaza Regiment
area: Gaza strip
period: 2014
The whole ‘roof knocking’ thing (a practice in which a small missile is fired at the roof of a building as an advance warning that it will shortly be destroyed in an air strike) was understood [by Hamas] very quickly.
Hamas forces are very light, really, and for them – in contrast to the general [Gaza Strip] population, and this is the great tragedy –‘roof knocking’ gave them enough time to go down into some burrow, or to run between the houses and vanish from the area.
But for a family with a grandmother who’s sitting in the living room, it’s a bit harder. And that, too, is part of the whole thing. Because of the huge amount of data being received and sent out, and also because of the amount of targets bombarded every day, you would often get a lot of data that says, ‘such-and-such a number of uninvolved civilians were wounded,’ and you don’t really know who are civilians and who aren’t. This is data that comes from the Palestinians’ sources.
rank: Lieutenant
unit: Gaza Regiment
area: Gaza strip
period: 2014
The whole ‘roof knocking’ thing (a practice in which a small missile is fired at the roof of a building as an advance warning that it will shortly be destroyed in an air strike) was understood [by Hamas] very quickly.
Hamas forces are very light, really, and for them – in contrast to the general [Gaza Strip] population, and this is the great tragedy –‘roof knocking’ gave them enough time to go down into some burrow, or to run between the houses and vanish from the area.
But for a family with a grandmother who’s sitting in the living room, it’s a bit harder. And that, too, is part of the whole thing. Because of the huge amount of data being received and sent out, and also because of the amount of targets bombarded every day, you would often get a lot of data that says, ‘such-and-such a number of uninvolved civilians were wounded,’ and you don’t really know who are civilians and who aren’t. This is data that comes from the Palestinians’ sources.
- This testimony appears under these categories: General, Rules of engagement
- This testimony can also be read in Hebrew
testimony catalog number: 568083
area: Gaza strip
period: 2014
There were cases in which families were apparently killed by fighter jet strikes. How do you explain that?
A lot of houses were hit, and some of those houses were also shared by occupants aside from [Hamas] militants. I think most of the families that were hurt were in cases like Shuja’iyya, (the testifier is referring to the artillery shot in the aftermath of the event in which seven IDF soldiers were killed when their APC was hit by a rocket) where the threshold for opening fire was more lax because forces were in immediate danger.
But the forces were operating in neighborhoods that were supposed to be uninhabited.
‘Supposed to be’ is one thing, but in reality there were people in there sometimes. In the urban areas of Rafah and Khuza’a, every other house was marked as ‘active’ (being used by militants). It was a real hornet’s nest in there, and they took down those houses systematically. ‘Roof knocking’ (a method by which a small missile is fired on the roof of a building as a warning shot to its resident
it is about to be struck) followed by a boom, ‘roof knocking,’ a boom. Despite the fact that no one was ‘supposed to be’ in there.
But there are means of confirming that there aren’t any people [in the houses], so how did it happen that they got killed anyway?
We can’t know everything. We did everything we could in order to know. If the family had no phone and a ‘roof knocking’ was conducted, and after a few minutes no one came out, then the assumption was that there was no one there.
You were working under the assumption that once a ‘roof knocking’ was conducted everyone leaves the building immediately, and if nobody leaves it means there was no one inside?
People who are willing to sacrifice themselves, there’s nothing you can do. We have no way of knowing if there were people in there who decided not to get out.
But the bomb was dropped on the house?
Yes.
And say after a ‘roof knocking’ 10 people go up on the roof of the house?
Then you don’t strike the house.
And what if after a ‘roof knocking’ 10 people stay inside the living room?
If people were inside the house I didn’t know about it. But I don’t think that was taken into consideration [over whether or not to bomb the house].
Is it a requirement to make sure no civilians are in a structure before it’s attacked by a fighter jet?
It’s not obligatory. Say the target was [Hamas’] deputy battalion commander in Shuja’iyya, an attack would be launched if the number of civilians wasn’t too high. By too high, I mean a two-digit number.
area: Gaza strip
period: 2014
There were cases in which families were apparently killed by fighter jet strikes. How do you explain that?
A lot of houses were hit, and some of those houses were also shared by occupants aside from [Hamas] militants. I think most of the families that were hurt were in cases like Shuja’iyya, (the testifier is referring to the artillery shot in the aftermath of the event in which seven IDF soldiers were killed when their APC was hit by a rocket) where the threshold for opening fire was more lax because forces were in immediate danger.
But the forces were operating in neighborhoods that were supposed to be uninhabited.
‘Supposed to be’ is one thing, but in reality there were people in there sometimes. In the urban areas of Rafah and Khuza’a, every other house was marked as ‘active’ (being used by militants). It was a real hornet’s nest in there, and they took down those houses systematically. ‘Roof knocking’ (a method by which a small missile is fired on the roof of a building as a warning shot to its resident
it is about to be struck) followed by a boom, ‘roof knocking,’ a boom. Despite the fact that no one was ‘supposed to be’ in there.
But there are means of confirming that there aren’t any people [in the houses], so how did it happen that they got killed anyway?
We can’t know everything. We did everything we could in order to know. If the family had no phone and a ‘roof knocking’ was conducted, and after a few minutes no one came out, then the assumption was that there was no one there.
You were working under the assumption that once a ‘roof knocking’ was conducted everyone leaves the building immediately, and if nobody leaves it means there was no one inside?
People who are willing to sacrifice themselves, there’s nothing you can do. We have no way of knowing if there were people in there who decided not to get out.
But the bomb was dropped on the house?
Yes.
And say after a ‘roof knocking’ 10 people go up on the roof of the house?
Then you don’t strike the house.
And what if after a ‘roof knocking’ 10 people stay inside the living room?
If people were inside the house I didn’t know about it. But I don’t think that was taken into consideration [over whether or not to bomb the house].
Is it a requirement to make sure no civilians are in a structure before it’s attacked by a fighter jet?
It’s not obligatory. Say the target was [Hamas’] deputy battalion commander in Shuja’iyya, an attack would be launched if the number of civilians wasn’t too high. By too high, I mean a two-digit number.
- This testimony appears under these categories: Rules of engagement
- This testimony can also be read in Hebrew
testimony catalog number: 16337
rank: Staff Sergeant
unit: Infantry
area: Northern Gaza strip
period: 2014
There were 30-40 [Palestinian] guys in the first house at which we arrived. An opening was made [by our forces] in its outer wall with a breaching frame – it’s this device with explosives in it – and then we entered.
Was there a public warning for people to get out?
We didn’t know they were inside at that moment. Before that stage there had been all these leaflets (warning people to leave), and we saw them running away when we started entering [the Gaza Strip]. It was evident that the civilians understood that we were coming. At this point there was a massive deployment of backup forces, of the various relief forces.
This specific house hadn’t been hit by any tank shells when we entered it. As far as I could tell this was due to a mistake – it was supposed to have been hit. Lucky for them it hadn’t.
But in general, every house you were meant to enter was supposed to have been fired at beforehand, if not with a tank shell then with a tank-mounted 0.5 [machine gun]. This one was a house with a very, very large courtyard, and that’s where they were all gathered; there were signs indicating that they had packed quickly.
I think they may have been under the impression that they would be able to stay. The field interrogator grabbed one of them and took him aside with the company commander; I have no idea what happened there, I suppose he tried to get as much information out of him as was possible. Ultimately, it was made clear to them that now they need to get the hell out of the place. They did.
Where to?
Further south, I guess. This absolutely did not concern me. At 04:00 AM, four or five women came over – they had put bags on a stick, like white flags. I don’t speak Arabic, but from their gesturing I gathered that they had come back – so they claimed – to take stuff they had forgotten in the house, stuff they considered critical. Obviously that didn’t happen.
What did you do at that point?
We fired toward their feet.
rank: Staff Sergeant
unit: Infantry
area: Northern Gaza strip
period: 2014
There were 30-40 [Palestinian] guys in the first house at which we arrived. An opening was made [by our forces] in its outer wall with a breaching frame – it’s this device with explosives in it – and then we entered.
Was there a public warning for people to get out?
We didn’t know they were inside at that moment. Before that stage there had been all these leaflets (warning people to leave), and we saw them running away when we started entering [the Gaza Strip]. It was evident that the civilians understood that we were coming. At this point there was a massive deployment of backup forces, of the various relief forces.
This specific house hadn’t been hit by any tank shells when we entered it. As far as I could tell this was due to a mistake – it was supposed to have been hit. Lucky for them it hadn’t.
But in general, every house you were meant to enter was supposed to have been fired at beforehand, if not with a tank shell then with a tank-mounted 0.5 [machine gun]. This one was a house with a very, very large courtyard, and that’s where they were all gathered; there were signs indicating that they had packed quickly.
I think they may have been under the impression that they would be able to stay. The field interrogator grabbed one of them and took him aside with the company commander; I have no idea what happened there, I suppose he tried to get as much information out of him as was possible. Ultimately, it was made clear to them that now they need to get the hell out of the place. They did.
Where to?
Further south, I guess. This absolutely did not concern me. At 04:00 AM, four or five women came over – they had put bags on a stick, like white flags. I don’t speak Arabic, but from their gesturing I gathered that they had come back – so they claimed – to take stuff they had forgotten in the house, stuff they considered critical. Obviously that didn’t happen.
What did you do at that point?
We fired toward their feet.
- This testimony appears under these categories: House incursions/takeovers, Rules of engagement
- This testimony can also be read in Hebrew
testimony catalog number: 750834
rank: Staff Sergeant
unit: Infantry
area: Northern Gaza strip
period: 2014
There was this mentally handicapped girl in the neighborhood, apparently, and the fact that shots were fired near her feet only made her laugh (earlier in his testimony the soldier described a practice of shooting near people’s feet in order to get them to distance themselves from the forces).
She would keep getting closer and it was clear to everyone that she was mentally handicapped, so no one shot at her. No one knew how to deal with this situation.
She wandered around the areas of the advance guard company and some other company – I assume she just wanted to return home, I assume she ran away from her parents, I don’t think they would have sent her there. It is possible that she was being taken advantage of – perhaps it was a show, I don’t know.
I thought to myself that it was a show, and I admit that I really, really wanted to shoot her in the knees because I was convinced it was one. I was sure she was being sent by Hamas to test our alertness, to test our limits, to figure out how we respond to civilians. Later they also let loose a flock of sheep on us, seven or ten of whom had bombs tied to their bellies from below.
I don’t know if I was right or wrong, but I was convinced that this girl was a test. Eventually, enough people fired shots near her feet for her to apparently get the message that ‘OK, maybe I shouldn’t be here,’ and she turned and walked away. The reason this happened is that earlier that day we heard about an old man who went in the direction of a house held by a different force; [the soldiers] didn’t really know what to do so they went up to him.
This guy, 70 or 80 years old, turned out to be booby-trapped from head to toe. From that moment on the protocol was very, very clear: shoot toward the feet. And if they don’t go away, shoot to kill.
rank: Staff Sergeant
unit: Infantry
area: Northern Gaza strip
period: 2014
There was this mentally handicapped girl in the neighborhood, apparently, and the fact that shots were fired near her feet only made her laugh (earlier in his testimony the soldier described a practice of shooting near people’s feet in order to get them to distance themselves from the forces).
She would keep getting closer and it was clear to everyone that she was mentally handicapped, so no one shot at her. No one knew how to deal with this situation.
She wandered around the areas of the advance guard company and some other company – I assume she just wanted to return home, I assume she ran away from her parents, I don’t think they would have sent her there. It is possible that she was being taken advantage of – perhaps it was a show, I don’t know.
I thought to myself that it was a show, and I admit that I really, really wanted to shoot her in the knees because I was convinced it was one. I was sure she was being sent by Hamas to test our alertness, to test our limits, to figure out how we respond to civilians. Later they also let loose a flock of sheep on us, seven or ten of whom had bombs tied to their bellies from below.
I don’t know if I was right or wrong, but I was convinced that this girl was a test. Eventually, enough people fired shots near her feet for her to apparently get the message that ‘OK, maybe I shouldn’t be here,’ and she turned and walked away. The reason this happened is that earlier that day we heard about an old man who went in the direction of a house held by a different force; [the soldiers] didn’t really know what to do so they went up to him.
This guy, 70 or 80 years old, turned out to be booby-trapped from head to toe. From that moment on the protocol was very, very clear: shoot toward the feet. And if they don’t go away, shoot to kill.
- This testimony appears under these categories: General, Rules of engagement
- This testimony can also be read in Hebrew
testimony catalog number: 275757
rank: Staff Sergeant
unit: Armored Corps
area: Deir al-Balah area
period: 2014
After three weeks inside the Gaza Strip we got to a sort of place where we had a view of a kilometer and a half over a route that’s called the Tancher Route, in military jargon, which is a very, very central route, with two lanes going north-to-south and two lanes going south-to-north – and throughout the duration of the fighting there was an order not to lay a finger on that route.
It’s one of the [Gaza] Strip’s central vital passageways; it’s not related to the fighting zone – no shooting at it. We had the feeling this was coming down from the government, even – something very important that can’t be harmed.
After three weeks in the tank, we went up to the post and saw this route and a sort of competition got going. “You’re a gunner, let’s see if you’re a real man, let’s see if you manage to hit a moving car.”
So I picked a car – a taxi – and tried to fire a shell, but didn’t manage to hit it. Two more cars came by, and I tried with another shell or two, and didn’t hit.
The commander said, “OK, enough, you’re using up all my shells, cut it out.” So we moved to a heavy machine gun. We didn’t manage to hit cars after a few times with that, either, until suddenly I saw a cyclist, just happily pedaling along. I said OK, that guy I’m taking down.
I calibrated the range, and didn’t hit – it hit a bit ahead of him and then suddenly he starts pedaling like crazy, because he was being shot at, and the whole tank crew is cracking up, “Wow, look how fast he is.”
After that I spoke about it with some other gunners and it turns out there was a sort of competition between all sorts of guys, “Let’s see if this gunner hits a car, or if that gunner hits a car.”
Did you consider what happens if there are people inside there? I mean, did that come up in the talk you held within the tank, that they’re civilians?
Me personally, deep inside I mean, I was a bit bothered, but after three weeks in Gaza, during which you’re shooting at anything that moves– and also at what isn’t moving, crazy amounts –you aren’t anymore really… The good and the bad get a bit mixed up, and your morals get a bit lost and you sort of lose it, and it also becomes a bit like a computer game, totally cool and real.
rank: Staff Sergeant
unit: Armored Corps
area: Deir al-Balah area
period: 2014
After three weeks inside the Gaza Strip we got to a sort of place where we had a view of a kilometer and a half over a route that’s called the Tancher Route, in military jargon, which is a very, very central route, with two lanes going north-to-south and two lanes going south-to-north – and throughout the duration of the fighting there was an order not to lay a finger on that route.
It’s one of the [Gaza] Strip’s central vital passageways; it’s not related to the fighting zone – no shooting at it. We had the feeling this was coming down from the government, even – something very important that can’t be harmed.
After three weeks in the tank, we went up to the post and saw this route and a sort of competition got going. “You’re a gunner, let’s see if you’re a real man, let’s see if you manage to hit a moving car.”
So I picked a car – a taxi – and tried to fire a shell, but didn’t manage to hit it. Two more cars came by, and I tried with another shell or two, and didn’t hit.
The commander said, “OK, enough, you’re using up all my shells, cut it out.” So we moved to a heavy machine gun. We didn’t manage to hit cars after a few times with that, either, until suddenly I saw a cyclist, just happily pedaling along. I said OK, that guy I’m taking down.
I calibrated the range, and didn’t hit – it hit a bit ahead of him and then suddenly he starts pedaling like crazy, because he was being shot at, and the whole tank crew is cracking up, “Wow, look how fast he is.”
After that I spoke about it with some other gunners and it turns out there was a sort of competition between all sorts of guys, “Let’s see if this gunner hits a car, or if that gunner hits a car.”
Did you consider what happens if there are people inside there? I mean, did that come up in the talk you held within the tank, that they’re civilians?
Me personally, deep inside I mean, I was a bit bothered, but after three weeks in Gaza, during which you’re shooting at anything that moves– and also at what isn’t moving, crazy amounts –you aren’t anymore really… The good and the bad get a bit mixed up, and your morals get a bit lost and you sort of lose it, and it also becomes a bit like a computer game, totally cool and real.
- This testimony appears under these categories: General, Rules of engagement
- This testimony can also be read in Hebrew
