IDF Soldiers Speak Out - Breaking Ranks

[KoalaKoKo]

Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War will air in the UK at 10.45pm on Monday 10 November on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STV Player

”If you want to shoot without restraint, you can,” Daniel, the commander of an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank unit, says in Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War.”

In this documentary IDF soldiers talk about the deliberate targeting of civilians, the IDF’s use of human shields and the overall narrative that there are no innocent people in Gaza trickling down from the top. There are accounts given of people murdered going to collect aid, murdered for walking slowly, walking fast, hanging out laundry and so on. I would say it is shocking but there has been so much horror documented and recorded from inside Gaza at this stage - it is good these soldiers are standing up for human rights and calling out war crimes.

The world has sort of forgotten abut Gaza now there is a supposed “ceasefire” but the killing is still happening, just on a smaller scale, Gaza is still occupied, the people there are still imprisoned with countless dead beneath the rubble.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/10/israeli-soldiers-breaking-ranks-gaza-civilians-human-shields

I wonder if Israel is going to cling to its lying about denying they purposely target civilians.

It is shocking that there are still people defending them and their actions when even their own soldiers are calling them out!

I can’t read the article but whistleblowers are very brave.

A poster on another thread and thank you to them posted the link below to a review of an earlier documentary made in 2007 with former female idf soldiers speaking out about the abuse of Palestinians they witnessed

the review shows that even those who only care for Israelis should be concerned about the abuses going on as it is also damaging recruits and damaging to Israeli society.

I remember seeing the documentary years ago, can only imagine how much worse things are now

https://www.palestinechronicle.com/to-see-if-im-smiling-movie-review/

Thank you for setting up this thread @KoalaKoKo sorry I posted at the same time, writing this so yours appears first

It is good more and more people are speaking out - but I imagine the pro Israel cheerleaders will just treat it like they treated the previous whistle blowers and say it is propaganda, lies, disgruntled ex employees, or the usual defense of “but Hamas”. I just don’t understand how this has been going on for decades and world leaders have just ignored it or in many cases supported it.

What you posted about the soldier's admitting they were using Palestinians as human shields was interesting too but again we have seen videos of children being used as human shields for years, of Palestinians strapped to Israeli military vehicles and people defended that or called it Pallywood.

I do worry about what will happen to the soldiers who have used their own names, Israel has arrested people for speaking out before and they are often completely destroyed. Like that PHD student who initially exposed the Tantura genocide and had his doctorate stripped, was taken to court and he was ostracised, never worked in academia again. They are brave people! I saw a post on social media that several thousand Israelis recently protested at a military base about Israel taking more Palestinian land.

That reminds me of the thread on the Palestinian man strapped to the jeep. It was wild! They didn't bother apologise when it was revealed that he was an innocent civilian. And there was complete silence when it happened to someone else and that person died.

I also remember what happened to that poor PHD student. The judge didn't even bother listening to his recordings. The part where she was listening to them in the documentary was the first time she heard them. The whole thing was ridiculous.

Surely this is a listening of the criteria for engaging in combat to maybe admittedly an unacceptable level at times. I am sure every army in the world has had similar issues as war by definition is grim.

However Hamas gives its combatants instructions to rape and kill and I think there is a huge moral difference. In addition this is about soldiers complaining about lack of restraint in some circumstances with soldiers not necessarily making individual decisions to take time over targeting not.making decisions to deliberately and systematically eradicate civilians i.e. genocide. For real genocides please look at the media operandi of the Nazis or look currently at Sudan or care I see it the behaviour of Gazan terrorists on October 7th.

You cannot seriously compare the genocide in Sudan with this genocide. There is a huge moral difference.

Even when Israeli soldiers confirm they were killing civilians because they were allowed to (AND REGRET IT) you still come with your but Hamas stuff.

How many ‘admittedly’ unnecessary civilian deaths will it take for you to have a think about what Israel has done? I assume it’s limitless.

They literally said their commanders told them that they don’t have to worry about international law, they said they were told to shoot civilians in several circumstances, an army rabbi that seems to be high up also told them to kill civilians and demolish everything, they said that while not the majority that a significant number of IDF soldiers just want to kill all arabs. One of the soldiers said that if people want to use the term genocide he would not dispute the term.

Honestly how can you defend this army, how can you defend it after what you have seen time and time again. How are you not horrified after you watched dead bodies, dead children and soldiers admitting that yes it was deliberate, yes they were targeted. IDF soldiers are saying that this is wrong and that it is happening throughout the army, in every battalion and comes from high up.

I had nightmares last night, I kept waking up with a reoccurring dream that my child was being held by IDF soldiers. This morning I am so messed up because while I know it was a nightmare I also know thousands of women’s kids are being held by the IDF, thousands of women’s kids are in the crosshairs of IDF soldiers rifles and other women’s kids are being taken and used as human shields. How can you defend this? How do you not understand that this is indefensible?

@mids2019I see you posted on the other board with the same name:

“One question is whether the soldiers in question took this concerns to senior officers initially and do we have the results on internal investigation?“

This was actually discussed several times during the documentary (yes reported over and over and nothing done) - did you watch it or are you just reading what other people have written about it? If you haven’t watched it and are just reading what someone else has written about it maybe actually watch it.

It should be utterly shocking, but it's been going on for so long to the extent it's became normalized. I'm glad mainstream TV are airing it now, the more exposure the better. I think a lot of the Israeli soldiers will be very traumatized down the line. Killing civilians just because cannot be good for the mind.

From 2017

https://www.972mag.com/shooting-and-lying-a-textbook-example-of-idf-impunity/