Israeli use of human shields in Gaza was systematic, soldiers and former detainees tell the AP

“These are not isolated accounts; they point to a systemic failure and a horrifying moral collapse,” said Nadav Weiman, executive director of Breaking the Silence — a whistleblower group of former Israeli soldiers that has collected testimonies about the practice from within the military. “Israel rightly condemns Hamas for using civilians as human shields, but our own soldiers describe doing the very same.”

‘Render it unusable’: Israel’s mission of total urban destruction

“The official mission was to open a logistical route for maneuvering, but in practice, the bulldozers were simply destroying homes. The southeastern part of Rafah is completely destroyed. The horizon is flat. There is no city.”

Israel Preparing to Turn Rafah – One-fifth of Gaza – Into Part of Buffer Zone

Commanders and soldiers – some of whom also gave testimony to the organization Breaking the Silence – attempt to describe how, in practice, the balance is struck between "not waking up in the morning and destroying neighborhoods," as the senior officer claimed, and "not risking the troops."

Israel military razed Gaza perimeter land to create ‘kill zone’, soldiers say

The testimonies are some of the first accounts by Israeli soldiers to be published since the latest war started in October 2023 after Hamas’s attack on Israel. They were collected by Breaking the Silence, a group founded in 2004 by Israeli veterans who aim to expose the reality of the military’s grip over Palestinians. The Guardian interviewed four of the soldiers who corroborated the accounts.

Israel controls 50% of Gaza after razing land to expand its buffer zone

A report documenting the accounts of soldiers who were in the buffer zone was released Monday by Breaking The Silence, an anti-occupation veterans group. A handful of soldiers -- including some who also spoke to AP -- described watching the army turn the zone into a vast wasteland.

Israeli soldiers reveal systematic destruction of Palestinian property to create Gaza buffer zone

In testimony provided to Breaking the Silence, an Israeli watchdog group which vets and publishes military testimonials, multiple soldiers said they were told the mission was to dramatically expand the buffer zone, in order to prevent another border attack.

I Also Could Have Been Killed in Vain Serving Israel's Settlement Project

Over a decade ago, I recounted this to the organization Breaking the Silence: "Zhabo is taking measurements, looking, taking pictures … We realize that more and more people are coming. We're three jeeps. We were maybe 10 soldiers there, and all of a sudden, from outside the mosque, there are some 150 Palestinians … within a second, starting to stone our jeeps … battering the jeeps ... and we had to flee."

Israel built an ‘AI factory’ for war. It unleashed it in Gaza.

In 2014, the IDF’s acceptable civilian casualty ratio was one civilian for a high-level terrorist, said Tal Mimran, a former legal adviser to the IDF. In the Gaza war, the number has grown to about 15 civilians for one low-level Hamas member and “exponentially higher” for mid- and high-level members,” according to the Israeli human rights organization Breaking the Silence, citing numerous testimonies from IDF soldiers. The New York Times reported the number as 20 earlier this week.

FAQ page