When I get to Netzarim, the place is basically destroyed. There’s the Islamic University there which is this ridiculous building, they didn’t leave much of it. It’s grotesque, what’s happening in Gaza. a kind of architect’s nightmare. The Turkish hospital stands there, pierced as a sieve. And that’s it, all the other buildings that are standing are either active bases or were bases until a week ago or are planned to be bases down the line. If it’s not an IDF base, it doesn’t exist. There are no buildings. I did not see one intact building that was higher than half a meter.

Because they just destroyed everything.

Yes. There’s nothing, man, nothing. To a level of desolation where the dogs are only at the bases because there is no food anywhere else. You go up to the base’s roof, you see only the other bases. There’s nothing obscuring [them], just a flat top. All the operations they do there of destroying buildings got the romantic name “shetaḥ shatuah” (flat field) and that’s basically what you’re doing there. Each time, they designate a polygon (demarcation of a geographical area) intended for demolition. On the northern side toward Zeitoun [the forces] are encroaching into the north, on the other side they are demolishing southward with the aim of pushing the line of contact further away. When I asked what the purpose is? “How do you not understand that this is the most moral mission in the world? We are occupying it so that they don’t return.” Okay, why shouldn’t they return?

And did you get an answer?

No one has an answer, fuck an answer. If in Shati (a refugee camp in Gaza City) they still justified it with the hostages somehow, and in Khuza’a you said I see the military rationale — here there’s no rationale. There is no military claim for why we are holding onto a phallus that is standing perpendicular to the State of Israel, reaching all the way to the sea (the testifier is referring to the Netzarim Corridor.)

So what is being said, what is the purpose?

There isn’t [one]. The purpose is to prevent them from going north. Why? Because. And what you do each time is designate a polygon south of Wadi Gaza and destroy it. How is it destroyed? It’s bombed. How is it bombed? You get HMX (explosive material), this kind of solution that comes in white containers, and the sappers (combat engineers) arrive, put it in the corners of houses, Nonel (a detonator), detonating cord (a cord used to activate explosive materials), boom. The amount of explosive material we used there is incredible. Combat engineers put it there and leave, within three hours a whole neighborhood has gone up in smoke. Four buildings, six buildings, eight buildings.

And this happens every day?

I wouldn’t say every day but a few times a week, definitely.

Throughout the whole time you’re there?

Throughout the whole time, from the second week to the last day.

This whole thing is happening to the south of Pa’amonit (Wadi Gaza)?

From the south of Pa’amonit. Every time the IDF arrives, the first houses are empty. At least as far as we know, they’re empty. The problem is that there always is the next row of houses, which now turns into the first row. This makes it a contender for destruction, because you need to push the line of contact further away. Why? We don’t know, but you need to push it further away. And that’s basically the work. There were a few times when there were actually people there, you enter a house and there are people there. You say to them: Get out. You give them — depending on the commander — half an hour to an hour to pack what they can and leave, and the house goes up to heaven in a whirlwind. There was no conflict with civilians. There was no situation of resistance, of protest, people simply understood that fate was not kind to them and ‘show’s over.’ It’s very submissive, this event. Imagine that armed people come in here and tell me: You have half an hour to collect your things. It’s not a fair fight, there is no negotiation, there’s no injunction, that’s not something that happens in this situation.