“I’m Bored, So I Shoot”: How Israeli Troops Are Authorized to Shoot Palestinians Virtually at Will

An interview with with reporter Oren Ziv of +972 Magazine, whose latest investigation details how Israeli forces in Gaza have been authorized to open fire on Palestinians virtually at will. Six soldiers who fought in Gaza describe a near-total absence of firing regulations, with soldiers shooting as they please, setting homes ablaze, leaving corpses to rot on the streets and more.

“It seems soldiers were shooting not from a tactical reason or a real military reason, but just out of being bored, to pass the time or just because they could,” says Ziv.

“Soldiers felt they can do whatever they want, that they won’t be accountable. And all this is done also with the awareness of the commanders.”

[...] several soldiers told us, that the army was not dealing with dead people, dead Palestinians, and it was very common to see them on the side of the road when they’re moving to one place to another [...] Israeli soldiers were deployed inside Palestinian homes and houses, and when they had to move to a new position, the official policy, as we understand, was to burn the house down. The soldiers would gather the mattresses and the furniture and light the house on fire and move on. The official explanation by the commanders [...] was the fact that they don’t want anything sensitive to be left there, military equipment or maps or anything like that, but also that Hamas will not use the houses. But between the lines, you can understand that this was also an act of revenge to punish Palestinian civilians and also to make sure they cannot go back to those areas, areas that at least some people in the army believed would stay in Israeli control.