Soldiers' testimonies expose Gaza violations

Ma'an
Israeli soldiers who served in the invasion of Gaza in January were instructed to 'shoot first, ask questions later,' a policy that led to killings of innocents, according to testimonies released by the organization Breaking the Silence on Wednesday.

The Israeli organization published the interviews with some 30 soldiers in a booklet and on its website.

"Better hit an innocent than hesitate to target an enemy," is how one soldier explained the instructions given soldiers before the ground invasion that began in the second week of the three week offensive...

"In urban warfare, anyone is your enemy. No innocents."

... “We weren't told outright to shoot anything we saw moving but that was the implication,” the soldier testified, “I asked, ‘What if I see a girl outside?’ She has no business being outside. "So what do I do?" Check if she's armed – then shoot her.”

Another soldier described carrying out the same policy, shooting an elderly woman for no other reason than that she was outside of her house in an area controlled by the army.

Some soldiers descriptions went even further, describing the dehumanization of the Palestinians: "You feel like an infantile little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them."

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