According to analysts in Israel and doctors who have worked in Gaza, the Israeli military, which describes itself as the “most moral army in the world,” may be regularly committing war crimes.
According to analysts, Israeli soldiers can do as they please without even needing an operational reason despite the fact that a long history of dehumanization, far-right ideology infiltration, and a lack of accountability have contributed to this scenario.
According to Erella Grassiani of the University of Amsterdam, who wrote about the moral “numbing” of Israeli soldiers during the second Intifada of 2000, “as far as I can see, this is a new phenomenon.”
She said, “This is new, not as if Israeli soldiers haven’t beaten and arrested children for throwing stones before.
There were “some kind of rules of engagement” in place, even if they were lax, but they still apply. She said, “What we’re seeing right now is completely different.”
Sport as a sport in the world of war
Israeli soldiers have long been accused of being brutally brutal while operating in Gaza and the West Bank.
Israeli soldiers have shared videos on social media showing themselves playing with their underwear, dressing up as women who have been raided, and wearing their dresses.
Additionally, there are reports of soldiers shooting civilians for “target practice” or simply to get bored.
The BBC began its investigation into Israeli soldiers’ killing of children in Gaza in early August. 95 of the 160 cases that were examined included shots that were not “intended wound only,” and 95 of those were in the head or the chest.
There are reports that Israeli soldiers have been targeting civilians who gather near aid distribution centers run by the self-declared GHF for target practice in addition to killing children.
British surgeon Nick Maynard, who made his third trip to Gaza since the start of the war, claimed that the GHF sites have been constructed as “death traps.”
“They’re compounds that have enough food to feed a family for a few days, but not the thousands of people who keep waiting outside.” They then open the gates, he said, “and allow the chaos, fighting, and even rioting to occur,” and then use that as a justification for firing into the crowd.”
The emergency room staff at the nearby Nasser Hospital, where Maynard worked, became aware of the nature of the shooting.
According to Maynard, “I was operating on a 12-year-old boy, who later died.”
“He had been shot at one of the GHF sites,” he claimed. Later, I had a conversation about it with a coworker in the emergency room who claimed he and other doctors had observed repeated and consistent patterns of wound grouping.
Wound grouping refers to the situation where several patients present with the same body part of an injury. Many patients who had wounds on a different body the day before come in with suspected Israeli snipers were either playing or using civilians to improve their aim, according to Maynard, who had previously told Sky News.
No control or accountability.
Israeli soldiers were portrayed as having no restrictions on their ability to shoot at civilians in Gaza, according to an investigation conducted by the Israeli magazine + 972 in July 2024.
A soldier who spent months serving in Gaza told + 972 that “there was total freedom.” The anonymous soldier continued, “If there is]even] a feeling of threat, there is no need to explain. You just shoot,” he continued. “It is permissible to shoot at their center of mass [their body], not into the air.”
A young girl and an elderly woman are permitted to shoot everyone, right?
According to a study by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), of the 52 inquiries the Israeli army claimed to have conducted into crimes committed in Gaza or the West Bank between October 2023 and June 2025, 88 percent were stalled or closed without any action.
Only one had sent the accused to prison.
1, 303 people were killed, 1, 880 were hurt, and two more were reported to have been tortured, according to AOAV’s investigation.
Even when footage of an incident, such as what appeared to be a Palestinian prisoner’s gang rape at the Sde Teiman Israeli prison facility, was exposed, the accused eventually received help from members of the Israeli cabinet, who included.
The Red Crescent documented the systematic torture of prisoners in Nablus Prison in the West Bank in at least 1967, leading to claims that the Israeli army tortures Palestinians regularly.
Additionally, there has become more offensive the dehumanizing language being used against Palestinians, which according to researchers is now used frequently in the army.
Israeli officials who allegedly denied that Palestinians were even human were uncovered in 1967, including former Israeli ambassador to Burma and now-Myanmar.
In 1985, a review of 520 Hebrew children’s books revealed that 86 of them portrayed Palestinians as “inhuman, war lovers, devious monsters, bloodthirsty dogs, preying wolves, or vipers.”
Twenty years later, 10% of a sample batch of Israeli children who were asked to draw Palestinians drew them as animals, most of whom were most likely in schools when many of those currently deployed to Gaza were likely in school.
According to Grassiani of the University of Amsterdam, “the dehumanization of Palestinians has been ongoing for decades.” However, I would say it is now finished.
Israeli soldiers have been attempting to retaliate against the Hamas-led attack of] October 7 from the very beginning, she said.
Author of the book An Army Like No Other about the Israeli military, Haim Bresheeth, described it as “like a snowball running down a hill to which there is no bottom.
He said, “Every year, the violence is ratcheted up.” The logical conclusion is to use civilians as target practice.
He compared Israel’s infantry to “it’s a new sport, a blood sport, and these sports always develop from the bottom up.”
