Israeli army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi was so embarrassed with the videos shown on the social media posted by his soldiers in Gaza, he issued a communique last week instructing his men and women euphemistically not to “film revenge videos”.
These videos have shown soldiers in various situations as dehumanizing Palestinians, raiding their homes, rummaging their drawers, sitting on their tables and going through their underwear in front of the camera while laughing about the fact. They have displayed torture and humiliation not befitting a “professional army”, as they like to call themselves.
Halevi’s comments have been across the media, locally in Israel and internationally. Yet they don’t seem to be making much impact, for the videoclips that have already been posted are retweeted while new ones continue to be splashed across the social media.
The Gaza war has come to be a fascination for Israeli soldiers, a tough series of battleground in the 265-kilometer stretch they’ve never experienced first-hand as they do today. Most of their wars on Gaza have been from the air, this time it is on-ground.
Indeed, the videos show a disturbed Israeli mind. Are the soldiers fighting in Gaza or looking at negligees and bras of women who run aways from their homes and/or were killed by Israeli bombers?
The ground battle has been so hard on them as nearly 3000 soldiers needed to be examined by mental health officers since 7 October the Israeli army reveals and this figure is likely to go up as the conflict intensifies. This is while 2000 soldiers in the “combat zone” need psychiatric treatment says Yekhiel Levechhitz of the clinical department of mental illnesses in the Israeli army.
The heel thief
Imagine dangling a pair of heels in front of the camera? This is what an Israeli soldier did as he posted a video of himself with the shoes after he looted a house raided by the Israeli army.
In a state of excitement, he says these pair of heels, shining white, are for his fiancé for their upcoming engagement party.
Israeli soldiers are raiding houses as if they are their own and nobody can stop them.
Playing cards on a prayer mat
Six Israeli soldiers play cards on a prayer mat in a building they took in Al Shati Camp east of Gaza.
It seems they are taking time off from their arrests and vandalism. With plastic cups around, they seem to be playing whilst gambling at the same time.
The prayer mat underneath maybe a strong signal of their distaste to the Palestinian owners and their religion.
Selfie to remember
Israel soldiers pose for a selfie in a bedroom of a Palestinian family that was forced to leave their home under Israeli gunfire.
Six soldiers with their guns pose whilst one holds a negligee as another points his finger to it. Is this supposed to mean something?
Their secret stays with them. Shortly after, it was reported the wrecked house was bombed by the Palestinian resistance and all of the soldiers were killed and presently lie under the wreckage like the thousands of Gazans that lie underneath the rubble of their bombed houses.
Although the last point might be doubted since according to Defense Ministry statistics, 17 percent of Israelis soldiers who are killed do so through friendly-fire.
‘Depravity’
Israeli soldiers whilst not fighting Izz Al Din Al Qassam and Saraya Al Quds fighters appear to like raiding Palestinian homes.
One blogger described these #Israeli soldiers as “depraved and degenerate”. He said these soldiers “expose their depravity” and make “fun of the injured” whilst dehumanizing the dead and displaced #Palestinians which they killed.
How does a “depraved” soldier hold balloons with a big smile whilst someone in the background lies tied, gagged and blindfolded on the floor?
In another post, the blogger asks: “How rotten must your entire (Israeli) society be for you to pose with such pride near underwear of women you murdered,” and adds “they don’t fear criticism because this sort of sexual intimidation is encouraged in Israel. Makes me feel sick.”
Stealing dolls
The Israeli army may say they are playing with the souls of Palestinians in Gaza, but they are wrong.
In this image, five Israeli soldiers talk to a doll in a kufiyah they obviously stole from a house they just raided.
Its graphic: The contour of the soldiers, their facial expression, the surroundings; the image says it all, the soldiers appear to be happily playing with the plastic doll that was placed at the back of their military Jeep amidst an environ of destruction and mayhem.
Red on tank
Not satisfied with the raids on people’s houses, Israeli soldiers, and this is coming from the so-called most moral army in the world, as if this not a great joke, a red negligee is displayed full-frontal on an armored vehicle.
One blogger expresses her disdain and western hypocrisy of what they see in front of them.
Soldier in a crib
Why is this Israeli soldier sleeping in a baby’s crib for? This is a selfie; the soldier took of himself while pretending to sleep in the baby’s crib. It makes you ask: Where is the baby now, where is his family, are they still alive, displaced may, have they been killed?
The final image is taken in one of the houses in Khan Younis, the second largest city in the Gaza Strip. This is where the Israeli army have been held up for the last 2-3 months, unable to overcome the resistance despite their mighty airpower.
Khan Younis is below the center of Gaza, and the rest of the outskirts of the city to the east, is putting up stiff resistance to Israeli soldiers who are getting either killed or maimed and injured by the day and as testified to by the Israeli hospitals.
Dr Marwan Asmar is a journalist from Amman, Jordan
