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IDF soldiers detail war crimes as Israel set out to 'cleanse' Gaza during 2008 war


The more the Israeli government lies, the more the truth will out. Interviews with the minority of truly moral soldiers in the IDF are starting to speak out openly about the war crimes committed by their comrades and how those crimes were directed from the top and were not the work of rogue elements. The IDF set out to 'cleanse' whole areas of Gaza with wanton and indiscriminate fire.
... in startling interviews with Israeli filmmaker Nurit Kedar, former soldiers have for the first time allowed themselves to be named while blaming their commanders for encouraging a "disproportionate" response to Hamas's rockets. They said their commanders used to "psych up" soldiers before an operation so they were ready to shoot indiscriminately.

One soldier says he was told to shell every house in a neighbourhood. Richard Goldstone's report for the UN alleged that war crimes had been committed by both sides, but highlighted the moral and legal severity of the Israel's attacks...

...Ohad, a 24-year-old tank commander, remembers being told the night before the operation that the entry into Gaza was to be "disproportionate". Once into Gaza, he said his orders were unambiguous: "The order was very clear that if a car came within 200 metres of me I could simply shoot at it. Shoot a shell at it."

He added: "We needed to cleanse the neighbourhoods, the buildings, the area. It sounds really terrible to say 'cleanse', but those were the orders....I don't want to make a mistake with the words."

Shay, a 30-year-old who was in the Elite Combat Unit, says he was disgusted by the behaviour of some conscripts in the Israeli army. He described taking over from the them the house of a wealthy Palestinian family. Conscripts, he said, had already defecated all over the bathroom. Family photos had been scrawled over. Graffiti on the walls read: "Long live Israel." more

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