Israeli soldiers interviewed for Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War, which aired on ITV on Monday, describe what they call a breakdown of norms and legal constraints in Gaza, saying civilians were killed at the discretion of individual officers and that official rules on protecting non-combatants “evaporated.”
“If you want to shoot without restraint, you can,” says Daniel, identified as the commander of an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank unit. Several soldiers spoke anonymously; others went on the record. All said the army’s code on engaging civilians was ignored.
Capt. Yotam Vilk, an armored corps officer, contrasts battlefield practice with the IDF’s training standard that lethal force requires a target’s “means, intent and ability” to cause harm. “There’s no such thing as ‘means, intent and ability’ in Gaza,” he says.
Another soldier, identified as Eli, says decisions over life and death were left to commanders’ consciences. He describes threat designations as arbitrary, with routine civilian behavior read as hostile intent. In one incident, he says a senior officer ordered a tank to demolish a building in an area designated safe for civilians because a man on the roof “hanging laundry” was deemed a spotter; a tank shell hit the structure, which partly collapsed, causing “many dead and wounded.”
The program reports that soldiers confirmed the IDF’s use of Palestinian civilians as human shields—contradicting official denials—and described unprovoked fire on people running toward food distribution points managed by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
A contractor identified as Sam says he saw soldiers shoot two unarmed men and an IDF tank destroy “a normal car” carrying four people near one site. UN figures cited in the film say at least 944 Palestinian civilians were killed while seeking aid around GHF locations. GHF and the IDF deny targeting civilians at aid sites.
In a written response, the IDF says it “remains committed to the rule of law and continues to operate in accordance with its legal and ethical obligations,” despite Hamas embedding within civilian infrastructure. It says the military prohibits the use of civilians as human shields and that allegations of misconduct are examined, with several cases under investigation by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division.
The documentary links battlefield conduct to rhetoric after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack, which killed about 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals.
A UN commission concluded in September that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, citing incitement by leaders including President Isaac Herzog, who said shortly after the attack: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.”
A spokesperson for Herzog says he has been an outspoken advocate for humanitarian causes and protecting innocents.
Daniel, the tank commander, says repeated assertions that “there was no such thing as an innocent in Gaza” filtered through the ranks. The program also features Maj. Neta Caspin, who says a brigade rabbi urged revenge “on all of them, including civilians.”
Rabbi Avraham Zarbiv, described as an extremist cleric who served more than 500 days in Gaza, calls the territory “one big terrorist infrastructure,” claims credit for championing mass demolition tactics and says the army “invests hundreds of thousands of shekels to destroy the Gaza Strip.”
Soldiers also describe the “mosquito protocol,” in which, they say, Palestinian civilians were forced into tunnels with an iPhone to transmit GPS data—an approach Daniel claims “spread like wildfire.” The IDF says such coercion is prohibited and that related allegations are investigated when “identifying details are provided.”
Guardian analysis in August of IDF intelligence data is cited in the film as estimating that 83% of those killed in Gaza were civilians. More than 69,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, and deaths continue despite a ceasefire that started a month ago.
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Source: The Guardian, Haaretz, The Times of Israel