Israeli troops opened fire on civilians in Gaza regardless of whether they posed a threat, an Israeli soldier told NBC News’ U.K. partner, Sky News, in a rare on-camera interview.
The reservist, who Sky News said served on the Israel Defense Force’s 252nd Division during three tours of duty in Gaza, spoke on the condition of anonymity because he said he feared being branded a traitor or shunned by his community. He said that his unit was often ordered to shoot anyone entering areas deemed as no-go zones by the military.
“We have a territory that we are in, and the commands are: Everyone that comes inside needs to die,” Sky News quoted him as saying, referring to restricted areas, adding: “If they’re inside, they’re dangerous, you need to kill them. No matter who it is.”
He added that the criteria on whether to shoot often lay in the hands of the commander in charge. “They might be shot, they might be captured,” he told Sky News. “It really depends on the day, the mood of the commander.”
NBC News has not spoken to the reservist and was not able to independently verify the soldier’s account.
According to Sky News, the reservist said his unit was stationed on the edge of a civilian area where soldiers slept in a house belonging to displaced Palestinians. Around their quarters was an invisible boundary, and civilians who crossed into this area were most often shot, he said.
“In one of the houses that we had been in ... there’s an imaginary line that they tell us all the Gazan people know it, and that they know they are not allowed to pass it,” he said. “But how can they know?”
The soldier recalled several instances in which civilians were shot on the orders of the commanders, including once when the civilians were scavenging scrap metal and solar panels from a building near the Shujaiya area of Gaza City that was deemed a no-go zone. “For sure, no terrorists there,” Sky News quoted him as saying.
The soldier added that the arbitrary killings are part of what he said is a prevailing belief among Israeli troops that there are no innocent civilians in the war in Gaza, which began after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage.
Since then, Israel’s ongoing military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 56,000 people and seriously injured thousands more, according to health officials in the enclave.
“People don’t feel mercy for them,” the reservist said, adding that his comrades openly discussed the killings and that there was a widely held belief among them that Palestinians had not tried to prevent the Hamas attack.
The soldier told Sky News that he was speaking out because he felt like he “took part in something bad,” and that he believed Palestinian civilians were “just poor people, civilians that don’t really have too many choices.”
The war in Gaza “needs to be over,” he added.
It is rare for an Israeli military service member to publicly criticize the IDF in a country where military service is mandatory for all citizens over the age of 18. Those who speak out publicly risk being ostracized.
In a statement to NBC News and to Sky News after being asked about the allegations of arbitrary killings, the IDF said it was operating in strict accordance with the rules of engagement and international law, and taking feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.
"Any claim that there is a 'widespread perception' that views all residents of the Gaza Strip as enemies does not reflect values of the IDF or the operational directives given to the forces," the statement added.
“The IDF operates against military targets and objectives, and does not target civilians or civilian objects,” the military said, adding that Israeli authorities were examining any reports and complaints of any violations under international law.
The report comes after at least 80 people were killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza on Sunday, according to Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, the director of the enclave’s field hospitals. He added that the number was likely to increase because of the ongoing shelling and airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
