Israeli Forces Liken Gaza Aid Site Shootings to Game of “Red Light, Green Light”

Israeli soldiers are ordered to treat crowds of Palestinians gathered to receive humanitarian aid in Gaza as a “hostile force” and communicate with the desperate aid seekers by opening fire, according to a new report citing soldiers who were deployed in Gaza.

Haaretz, echoing reporting by Palestinians and humanitarian groups on the ground, reports that Israeli soldiers are told to shoot at crowds to prevent them from approaching an aid site before it’s open. The fact that they are civilians doesn’t matter, soldiers say, and military leaders pay no mind as to whether or not civilians are killed as a result.

The military uses “everything imaginable” to fire on the crowds, including heavy machine guns, tanks, grenades, and mortars, one soldier said, referring to the area around the U.S.- and Israel-backed “aid” sites as a “killing field.”

“At night, we open fire to signal to the population that this is a combat zone and they mustn’t come near,” one officer said, describing the supposed security practices for the site. “Once, the mortars stopped firing, and we saw people starting to approach. So we resumed fire to make it clear they weren’t allowed to. In the end, one of the shells landed on a group of people.”

The protocol, one soldier said, is called “Operation Salted Fish,” a reference to the Israeli name for the children’s game, “red light, green light.”

Indeed, Palestinian officials and journalists have repeatedly reported Israel hitting crowds with tank fire and other heavy weapons, often causing hundreds of casualties at once, on a near-daily basis.​​ Israeli forces have killed at least 583 Palestinians and injured 4,186 more at sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the Gaza Ministry of Health has reported.

In some instances, soldiers are supposedly also firing at crowds near “aid” sites in order to protect private contractors who are demolishing homes in Gaza nearby. Sources said private contractors are “making a fortune” by demolishing homes in Gaza, with the government paying out the equivalent of $1,500 per home.

The Israeli military has claimed that they are simply firing “warning shots” at aid seekers. However, even if this were a legitimate practice, it seems to be yet another coverup from the military as soldiers say they’ve been instructed to open fire directly on civilians.

Soldiers say that this and other practices have made Gaza into a combat zone unlike any other, where there are no rules about who constitutes a legitimate target or whether or not there are instances where soldiers should restrain from fire. Because of the lack of any guidelines or restraints, not only is live fire toward civilians allowed, it’s effectively encouraged, soldiers said.

“Technically, it’s supposed to be warning fire — either to push people back or stop them from advancing,” one reserve tank soldier told Haaretz. “But lately, firing shells has just become standard practice. Every time we fire, there are casualties and deaths, and when someone asks why a shell is necessary, there’s never a good answer. Sometimes, merely asking the question annoys the commanders.”

This practice, of seemingly using the “aid” sites as a honeytrap, comes after Israel has spent the last 20 months systematically starving Palestinians in Gaza, pushing the entire territory into or on the cusp of famine, experts have said.

“The moral aspect is practically nonexistent,” said one military figure, who recently attended a higher-level meeting within the military. “No one stops to ask why dozens of civilians looking for food are being killed every day.”