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Sydney Morning Herald
13 hours ago
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
Israeli soldiers ordered to fire on Palestinians queuing for aid, say whistleblowers
Over the period in question, the Hamas-run health ministry says 549 people have been killed and 4000 have been wounded trying to pick up aid. 'A killing field' One soldier told Haaretz: 'It's a killing field. Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. 'They're treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the centre opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.' The soldier added: 'We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred metres away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there's no danger to the forces.' Loading 'I'm not aware of a single instance of return fire. There's no enemy, no weapons,' they said. The aid distribution points at which the majority of the killings occurred are run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial joint venture set up by Israel and the US to bypass the UN, which Israel has accused of working with Hamas. It now operates four 'rapid distribution' sites in Gaza – three in southern Gaza and one in the centre. They are staffed by private US and Palestinian workers but secured by the IDF from a distance of several hundred metres and only open for an hour at a time – a tactic that attracts crowds of thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of people. An IDF officer told Haaretz that the military's security perimeters around distribution points included tanks, snipers and mortars, and they were designed to protect those present and ensure aid distribution could take place. 'At night, we open fire to signal to the population that this is a combat zone, and they mustn't come near,' the officer said. 'Once, the mortars stopped firing, and we saw people starting to approach. So we resumed fire to make it clear they weren't allowed to. In the end, one of the shells landed on a group of people.' In other cases, he said, 'We fired machine guns from tanks and threw grenades. There was one incident where a group of civilians was hit while advancing under the cover of fog. It wasn't intentional, but these things happen.' 'There's no danger' According to the officers and soldiers who spoke to Haaretz, the IDF fires at people who arrive before opening hours to prevent them from approaching, or again after the centres close, to disperse them. One soldier said: 'We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred metres away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there's no danger to the forces.' A senior officer whose name 'repeatedly comes up in testimonies about the shootings near aid sites' is Brigadier General Yehuda Vach, commander of the IDF's Division 252, reported Haaretz. He has previously attracted criticism in the Israeli media and was reported to have once told his troops: 'There are no innocents in Gaza'. Brigadier General Vach is also suspected of ordering the destruction of a hospital in Gaza without authorisation earlier this year, according to Israeli media. 'These are malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF, the most moral military in the world. IDF soldiers receive clear orders to avoid harming civilians' Statement from Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz However, Haaretz added: 'Vach's division is not the only one operating in the area, and it's possible that other officers also gave orders to fire at people seeking aid.' Nir Hasson, an investigative journalist who researched and wrote the story, with colleagues Yaniv Kubovich and Bar Peleg, said that while the 'big majority' of Israelis still supported the war in Gaza, 'cracks in the mainstream consensus' were starting to appear. He said the soldiers and officers the newspaper had interviewed were motivated to speak partly for 'humanitarian' reasons but also because they feared that 'professionalism' and 'ethics' in parts of the IDF were breaking down. 'They say it goes against the values of the IDF and the state of Israel, and they will add that it is unbelievable that we are killing starving people who only want to get to the food,' Hasson said. 'Falsehoods' Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister, said the Haaretz report was 'blood libel' designed to discredit the Israeli military. 'The State of Israel absolutely rejects the contemptible blood libels that have been published in the Haaretz newspaper,' they said in a joint statement. Loading They added: 'These are malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF, the most moral military in the world. IDF soldiers receive clear orders to avoid harming innocent civilians, and they act accordingly.' In a statement, the IDF denied that its soldiers had been ordered to shoot at Palestinians but said it was investigating. A spokesman said: 'The IDF did not instruct the forces to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centres. To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians.' They added that 'systematic learning processes aimed at improving the operational response in the area and minimising, as much as possible, potential friction between the civilian population and IDF forces' were taking place.
The Age
13 hours ago
- Health
- The Age
Israeli soldiers ordered to fire on Palestinians queuing for aid, say whistleblowers
Over the period in question, the Hamas-run health ministry says 549 people have been killed and 4000 have been wounded trying to pick up aid. 'A killing field' One soldier told Haaretz: 'It's a killing field. Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. 'They're treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the centre opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.' The soldier added: 'We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred metres away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there's no danger to the forces.' Loading 'I'm not aware of a single instance of return fire. There's no enemy, no weapons,' they said. The aid distribution points at which the majority of the killings occurred are run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial joint venture set up by Israel and the US to bypass the UN, which Israel has accused of working with Hamas. It now operates four 'rapid distribution' sites in Gaza – three in southern Gaza and one in the centre. They are staffed by private US and Palestinian workers but secured by the IDF from a distance of several hundred metres and only open for an hour at a time – a tactic that attracts crowds of thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of people. An IDF officer told Haaretz that the military's security perimeters around distribution points included tanks, snipers and mortars, and they were designed to protect those present and ensure aid distribution could take place. 'At night, we open fire to signal to the population that this is a combat zone, and they mustn't come near,' the officer said. 'Once, the mortars stopped firing, and we saw people starting to approach. So we resumed fire to make it clear they weren't allowed to. In the end, one of the shells landed on a group of people.' In other cases, he said, 'We fired machine guns from tanks and threw grenades. There was one incident where a group of civilians was hit while advancing under the cover of fog. It wasn't intentional, but these things happen.' 'There's no danger' According to the officers and soldiers who spoke to Haaretz, the IDF fires at people who arrive before opening hours to prevent them from approaching, or again after the centres close, to disperse them. One soldier said: 'We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred metres away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there's no danger to the forces.' A senior officer whose name 'repeatedly comes up in testimonies about the shootings near aid sites' is Brigadier General Yehuda Vach, commander of the IDF's Division 252, reported Haaretz. He has previously attracted criticism in the Israeli media and was reported to have once told his troops: 'There are no innocents in Gaza'. Brigadier General Vach is also suspected of ordering the destruction of a hospital in Gaza without authorisation earlier this year, according to Israeli media. 'These are malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF, the most moral military in the world. IDF soldiers receive clear orders to avoid harming civilians' Statement from Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz However, Haaretz added: 'Vach's division is not the only one operating in the area, and it's possible that other officers also gave orders to fire at people seeking aid.' Nir Hasson, an investigative journalist who researched and wrote the story, with colleagues Yaniv Kubovich and Bar Peleg, said that while the 'big majority' of Israelis still supported the war in Gaza, 'cracks in the mainstream consensus' were starting to appear. He said the soldiers and officers the newspaper had interviewed were motivated to speak partly for 'humanitarian' reasons but also because they feared that 'professionalism' and 'ethics' in parts of the IDF were breaking down. 'They say it goes against the values of the IDF and the state of Israel, and they will add that it is unbelievable that we are killing starving people who only want to get to the food,' Hasson said. 'Falsehoods' Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister, said the Haaretz report was 'blood libel' designed to discredit the Israeli military. 'The State of Israel absolutely rejects the contemptible blood libels that have been published in the Haaretz newspaper,' they said in a joint statement. Loading They added: 'These are malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF, the most moral military in the world. IDF soldiers receive clear orders to avoid harming innocent civilians, and they act accordingly.' In a statement, the IDF denied that its soldiers had been ordered to shoot at Palestinians but said it was investigating. A spokesman said: 'The IDF did not instruct the forces to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centres. To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians.' They added that 'systematic learning processes aimed at improving the operational response in the area and minimising, as much as possible, potential friction between the civilian population and IDF forces' were taking place.
The Guardian
12-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
IDF unit involved in killing of Palestinian paramedics led by general with ‘contempt for human life'
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) unit involved in the killings of 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers in the Gaza Strip last month was under the command of a brigade led by a notorious Israeli general previously accused by some of his own troops of having 'contempt for human life'. The IDF has confirmed that troops from Golani, one of the army's five infantry brigades, opened fire on two convoys of ambulances in Rafah on 23 March and dug a mass grave to cover the bodies of those killed until the corpses could be retrieved by a UN team six days later. It has disputed allegations from two witnesses who exhumed the bodies and newly released postmortem results that found several of those killed had close-range gunshot wounds to the head and chest and were discovered with their hands or legs tied. Field operatives from Unit 504, a military intelligence unit with a reputation for cruelty and reckless behaviour, including torture, were also present during the attack, a senior military intelligence source with knowledge of recent IDF deployments in southern Gaza told the Guardian. The Israeli military declined to comment on whether 504 was involved. During the Rafah attack, the Golani troops were under the command of the reservist Armoured 14th Brigade. The 14th Brigade is part of a division led by Brig Gen Yehuda Vach, who former officers say designated an unofficial 'kill zone' elsewhere in the strip which resulted in the arbitrary killings of Palestinian civilians. Soldiers also alleged Vach's 'lack of operational discipline' endangered soldiers' lives. Vach has also told troops 'there are no innocents in Gaza', according to an investigation by the Israeli daily Haaretz. In a video of Golani troops being briefed before their redeployment to Gaza earlier this month, aired by Israel's Channel 14, a battalion commander appeared to endorse an open-fire policy, telling the soldiers: 'Anyone you encounter there is an enemy. You identify anyone, you eliminate him.' Golani soldiers have previously been accused of war crimes in the conflict, including killing civilians, degrading treatment of bodies, needless destruction of civilian infrastructure, and incitement to genocide. A song written by a member of the brigade's 51st Battalion in the aftermath of the Hamas 7 October 2023 attack on Israel that ignited the war has become an unofficial anthem for many soldiers. The chorus's lyrics include: 'For what you did to the nation of Israel, Golani is coming with gasoline … Gaza will burn.' The accompanying music video features footage from Golani operations in Gaza in which the brigade's yellow and green standard can clearly be seen. Many of the allegations against Golani troops were compiled from social media photo and video footage posted online by the soldiers themselves and cited in legal filings by the Hind Rajab Foundation, a non-profit that aims to hold Israeli military personnel accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israeli officials say the two founders of the Belgium-based organisation have a history of extremist views. The presence of Unit 504 was also backed up by the account of the sole survivor of the massacre, the Red Crescent volunteer Munther Abed, and official photos and video of recent IDF operations in Rafah. The unit has conducted thousands of interrogations of captives from Gaza during the war, and differs from other Israeli military intelligence outfits in that the soldiers are combat troops, operating at a battalion level, who speak fluent Arabic. According to Abed, a 27-year-old ambulance service volunteer, troops he described as looking like 'special forces … armed with rifles, green lasers, and night-vision goggles' dragged him out of the emergency vehicle after it was shot at continuously for five minutes, killing the driver and paramedic he was travelling with. The uniform description could match either Golani commandos or that of Unit 504 field operatives. Abed said he was then stripped to his underwear, with his hands bound behind his back, and threatened, suffocated and beaten during several hours of interrogation. Last week, the Israeli military backtracked on its account of the killings of the paramedics after footage emerged which contradicted its claims that the Red Crescent vehicles were not marked as emergency vehicles and were not using headlights or flashing lights when troops opened fire. The IDF has said that between six and nine of the medics had links to Hamas, without providing evidence. None of those killed – eight Red Crescent staff, six members of the Gaza civil defence agency and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees – were armed. One Red Crescent employee is still missing. The Israeli army chief, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, has since ordered a second, more in-depth investigation into the attack. Over 18 months of war Israeli forces have killed hundreds of medical workers and the staff of aid agencies and UN organisations in Gaza. In April last year, seven members of the charity World Central Kitchen died in a sustained Israeli attack on their clearly marked vehicles. Human rights organisations have long accused the Israeli military of a culture of impunity, with few soldiers ever facing justice. In 2023, fewer than 1% of complaints made against Israeli troops' actions in the occupied Palestinian territories ended in a conviction, according to the latest US state department annual human rights report. Earlier this week, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society called for an international investigation into the incident, which was the deadliest for members of the International Committee of the Red Cross since six workers were shot and killed in 2017 in an Islamic State ambush in Afghanistan.
