Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War,

[Everexpanding]

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

Israeli soldiers have described a free-for-all in Gaza and a breakdown in norms and legal constraints, with civilians killed at the whim of individual officers, according to testimony in a TV documentary

“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, due to be broadcast in the UK on ITV on Monday evening.

The soldiers who agreed to talk confirmed the IDF’s routine use of human shields, contradicting official denials, and gave details of Israeli troops opening fire unprovoked on civilians racing to reach food handouts at the militarised distribution points set up by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

“Their testimonies describe what they recall as indiscriminate bombardment, instances where Palestinian civilians were used as human shields, and an operational culture that some soldiers characterised as “no innocents in Gaza.”

The 1x60’ film pieces together a rare picture from inside Israel’s military ranks, raising questions about accountability, command decisions, and the hidden realities of a war largely shielded from public view.”

Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War airs on Monday 10th November at 10:45pm on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STV Player. It is a ZANDLAND production for ITV. Ben Zand directs, Matan Cohen is Producer and Israel interviewer, Maya Rostowska is the Producer and Josh Reynolds is the Executive Producer.

Please see @KoalaKoKo ’s thread we posted simultaneously

Thank you @PuttingOnTheKitsch , I hope you don’t mind but I posted your link on the other thread discussing this subject.

Maybe the parameters of conflict have to be reviewed. It must be difficult making life or death decisions in the heat of battle though.

Compare this to the explicit instructions given to Hamas terrorists on October 7th to kill and rape women and children. Armies can reflect on mistakes when civilians die; terrorists revel in it.

Are we remotely surprised?

I’m not disputing the article itself but Miko Peled should never be used as a source. He may be Israeli but several pro-Palestine groups have distanced themselves from him. He serves as a useful deflection from charges of antisemitism while propagating it himself.

if something is true, you will always be able to find it from someone more reliable.

Maybe we should have interviews with Hamas fighters for balance?

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

Anyway the timing of such interviews seems an attempt to try and maintain the 'genocide' narrative when there is a ceasefire which has dampened down news in that particular region. I am sure there will be a lot of reflection on the conflict within Israel and Gaza and how to avoid such conflicts but that reflection will take time. This piece seems an attempt at a shock tactic to again demonize the IDF and maintain momentum in for the Palestinian 'cause'.

Another piece I don't like is the singling out of a Rabbi with eight wing views in an attempt to try and tar Judaism as a whole by association. There would be many Rabbis in Israel and the world concerned with human death in the conflict with very much different views yet one outlier is picked for this documentary. No mentions of Imams or Muslim leaders in Gaza calling for obliteration of Israel (possibly out of an attempt not to offend).

Why do Hamas need to be interviewed, I believe its well known they are terrorists, most people know what horrors they inflict, Hamas are already exposed for what they are.

This show was about the IDF who are supposed to not do such things and constantly deny any wrong doing. There’s no defending the IDF sorry to burst your bubble

But Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir were both terrorists leading terrorist groups who were responsible for unspeakable acts of terror. They went on to become Prime Ministers of this so moral country.

The point is that maybe the IDF can reflect on mistakes and this draws a contract with Hasan society who chose to be lead by terrorists. Hans fight without uniform so can you blame the IDF for some error in target defintion?

At least the Israeli army had clear rules of engagement as the soldiers attest to while a true genocide regime instructs its soldiers to slaughter all. The Nazis were quite explicit about how Jews should be treated - that is true genocide.

Mistakes?? Don't make me laugh. What is the point of official rules of engagement when everyone, including the IDF, know they are meaningless and in name only. Is it an official rule of engagement for the IDF snipers to use Palestinian children for target practice as they do.

@mids2019 there are already explicit rules in the Geneva convention covering the detention of prisoners:

no torture: numerous documented cases by Israel not just in Sde Teiman

adequate nutrition: again documented cases of inadequate nutrition /substandard rations being routinely being given to Palestinians detained by Israel see reports by BT’selem etc

to allow in inspectors: Israel has banned the International Red Cross from accessing detention centres
etc etc

as to the difficulty of making decisions in the heat of battle, most Palestinian casualties have been caused by the dropping of massive bombs the decision to do this is made far from the heat of battle in comfortable suites.

so yes would love to see more laws covering conflict but would be good if Israel could just abide by the explicit ones already in place

Further to the above and from the documentary:

Another anonymous soldier said that using drones in Gaza “feels like a game”.
“You can sit in some basement of a house, safe with your helmet off, scratching your balls, half dressed and kill Palestinians,” he added bluntly.
‘
Eli”, another soldier, said at the end of his deployment that his commander reported they took out “112 terrorists”, but added: “I can confidently say that … only one was even suspected of being armed. That is, the 111 other people we killed, no one even claimed that they were armed.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-war-crimes-gaza-whistleblower-itv-documentary-b2862575.html

I imagine nothing will be done about any of this, and it will continue to happen.

This was the testimony of an IDF officer whose unit Rabbi (yes military units have assigned rabbis) exhorted him for half an hour to punish Gaza for Oct 7th by killing all Palestinians they come across- even children. The way the article is written it is about this 1 Rabbi on active duty military service in Gaza advising this IDF officer in Gaza using genocidal rhetoric. The Rabbi wasn’t singled out or picked for the documentary.

Maybe we should have interviews with Hamas fighters for balance?

That would not be balance. Balance would be interviewing other states’ soldiers who have fought terrorists and how they avoided killing a lot of civilians while doing it.

Which soldiers are these that have avoided killing a lot of civilians while the terrorists were hiding in amongst the civilian population and under hospitals, etc. They sound amazing!

Lets assume for one minute that Hamas were hiding in a hospital. Please tell which army you think would justify slaughtering all the civilian patients in the hospital to kill that Hamas fighter.

We don't need to "assume for one minute" it's well known that Hamas have a network of tunnels as big as the London underground beneath civilian buildings including hospitals, schools, etc.

There is no army in the world that has avoided killing lots of civilians faced with the same challenges. Civilians are killed in all wars but normally armies do their best to protect their own civilians, not deliberately endanger them.

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/GAZA-TUNNELS/gkvldmzorvb/

Yes they have a big tunnel network but who said they are under the hospitals?

Did you watch the programme @Twiglets1 ?

The Israeli army said on Sunday it had retrieved the body of Hamas' military chief Mohammed Sinwar in an underground tunnel beneath a hospital in southern Gaza, following a targeted operation last month.

Another senior Hamas leader, Mohammad Shabana, commander of the Rafah Brigade, was also found dead at the scene along with a number of other militants, who are still being identified, said IDF spokesperson, Brigadier General Effie Defrin.

Israeli forces gave a small group of foreign reporters a tour of the tunnel that had been uncovered beneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis, which Defrin said was a major command and control compound for Hamas.

"This is another example of the cynical use by Hamas, using civilians as human shields, using civilian infrastructure, hospitals, again and again," said Defrin.

"We found underneath the hospital, right under the emergency room, a compound of a few rooms. In one of them we found, we killed Mohammed Sinwar," he said.

Defrin said the army had carefully planned the strike near the European Hospital in order not to damage it.

A large trench dug infront of the Emergency Room entrance led down to a hole in the claustrophobic, concrete tunnel, that was used as a hideaway by Hamas fighters, the army said.

During the search of the site, Israeli forces recovered weapon stockpiles, ammunition, cash and documents that are now being reviewed for intelligence value.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-reveals-tunnel-under-gaza-hospital-says-body-sinwars-brother-found-there-2025-06-08/

The IDF said?? Hysterical. If an IDF spokesman told me he had chicken for dinner last night, I would have no idea what he had for dinner but you can bet it wasn't chicken.