Israeli soldier testimonials stoke Gazans' claims of war crimes
Palestinians believe a report of firsthand accounts by Israeli soldiers and officers who fought in the 2014 Gaza war prove that Israel committed war crimes in its conduct of the conflict.
Breaking the Silence, an organization founded in 2002 to document the Israeli army's activities in the occupied territories, surprised Palestinians on May 4 with a report on the 2014 Gaza war. The 240-page "This Is How We Fought in Gaza," published in English and Hebrew, features 111 testimonials by 60 Israeli soldiers and officers who participated in Operation Protective Edge.
According to the report, the Gaza war, which lasted 50 days, claimed the lives of more than 2,200 Palestinians and wounded more than 11,000, most of them civilians. In addition, the total population of Gaza is slightly less than 1.8 million, and more than half a million of them were displaced. Some neighborhoods were completely destroyed.
Avner Gvaryahu from Breaking the Silence said on May 7 that the army had weakened the rules of engagement for opening fire and that its command had deceived officers and soldiers in the field, telling them that there would be no civilians in some of the neighborhoods they were about to enter. The Israeli army had issued a statement May 4 in which it declared its commitment to an internal investigation into complaints by Palestinians and human rights organizations about the behavior of its forces during the war. It also said Breaking the Silence had refused to provide it access to the testimonies it cites in its report.
"This Is How We Fought" reveals that Israeli soldiers received orders to approach all Palestinians in Gaza as enemies, not civilians, in terms of the rules of engagement. Palestinians had previously attested to harsh treatment and abuses at the hands of Israeli soldiers during the war. Israeli practices ranged from the alleged indiscriminate killing of civilians to prohibiting ambulances from reaching the wounded to destroying houses with people inside them. The report's significance and legitimacy stems from its being issued by Israelis and based on firsthand Israeli testimonies rather than press reports.
