Part of the Series
Struggle and Solidarity: Writing Toward Palestinian Liberation
Israel’s genocide in Gaza may go down as the first genocide in history where the perpetrators have documented, posted, shared and celebrated their crimes on social media.
Over the past 10 months, Israeli soldiers in Gaza have taken photos and videos of themselves while they blew up homes and schools, and tortured captives.
To boast of their atrocities against civilians, Israeli forces have routinely filmed themselves demolishing residential blocks in Gaza, which they proceeded to share online. In June, an Israeli soldier filmed himself walking triumphantly amid the ruins and rubble of a destroyed neighborhood in Gaza, while boasting: “We were asked to clear the area. Blow it all up. What can I do, I’m an obedient soldier. Tomorrow there won’t be anything here.”
The most disturbing photos feature Israeli soldiers posing mockingly with belongings of slain Palestinians, mainly women’s underwear, or playing with Palestinian children’s toys and bikes.
Israeli soldiers have recorded themselves looting jewelry, clothes, and valuables from the homes of Palestinians they have bombed and ethnically cleansed in Gaza.
Many photos feature soldiers basking gleefully in the ruins of bombed homes, schools and hospitals. A recent photo, taken in the wake of a horrific massacre in Gaza City, shows a group of Israeli soldiers posing, some with smiles, in front of a destroyed hospital they had converted into a military base.
In some cruel instances, the soldiers filmed themselves inside occupied homes in Gaza: cooking food left uneaten by victims, drinking Arabic coffee, lying in bathtubs, urinating on the ruins of homes, or throwing food at demolished houses to mock starving Palestinians.
Many photos feature soldiers with defenseless Palestinian captives. An Israeli soldier recently shared a photo on his private Instagram account showing himself in a destroyed building in Rafah, hovering over kidnapped Palestinians in inhumane conditions, all blindfolded and handcuffed while lying on the floor.
By posting these photos, the soldiers wish to cast themselves in a heroic image back home. However, sometimes this can backfire. For instance, in December, an Israeli soldier was filmed holding a gun over a young Palestinian man, Hamza Abu Halima, from Shuja’iyya neighborhood in Gaza City. The soldier then posted the video online, and a screenshot taken from the video went viral. It showed Hamza, stripped of his clothes, facing the soldier fearlessly and defiantly. It made Hamza an icon of bravery and resilience, earning him the title “Lion of Gaza.” The soldier deleted the video.
Seeking to both dehumanize Palestinians and entertain Israeli spectators back home, soldiers share footage of themselves desecrating mosques and the Quran, vandalizing homes and shops, or mocking Palestinian suffering. One soldier was filmed destroying occupied Palestinian houses in Rafah, before posting the footage on his Instagram with the caption: “Renovations in Gaza.” Another was filmed shooting indiscriminately at Palestinian homes in Gaza while smoking a cigarette.
Some posts shared by soldiers celebrate the destruction of entire neighborhoods in Gaza, with burned homes and rubble in the background.
The posts are often accompanied with messages bearing genocidal contents and pledges to annihilate Gaza and ethnically cleanse Palestinians, which echo statements by top Israeli politicians and military leaders. Some of those posts show soldiers dedicating a destroyed Palestinian home to family members, friends and even celebrities. In one video, a soldier dedicated a demolished house in Khan Yunis to the Israeli singer Eyal Golan, who has called for the annihilation of Gaza. Another was filmed detonating explosives in Palestinian neighborhoods in Gaza while saying, “This is yours, mom.”
Sometimes, the soldiers attach patriotic Israeli music to the videos, or, more mockingly, traditional Palestinian music. In one instance, an Israeli soldier posted a mock advertisement for “his barbershop” in Gaza to the tune of an Israeli hip-hop song likening Palestinians to animals. The video shows a group of soldiers dancing while flanked by killed Palestinian civilians lying lifeless on the ground.
Meanwhile, thousands of Israelis have taken to Telegram groups to share Israeli military atrocities in Gaza. In the wake of an Israeli massacre in Rafah, some even took to Telegram channels to mock images of a beheaded Palestinian baby.
These photos and videos, which are widely shared on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, represent a growing culture of impunity. Together, they bear witness to the brutality of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and its unfolding horror. These posts not only shatter the myth of “the most moral army in the world,” but show to what extent the dehumanization of Palestinians has been normalized in Israel.
When asked by The New York Times in February, the Israeli military said the conduct in some of these videos “is deplorable and does not comply with the army’s orders.”
But the attitude on display is by no means an aberration or anomaly among a few outliers; rather, it is a symptom of a collective mindset that views Palestinians as less than human, or as Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has stated, “human animals.”
These kinds of posts have a wide following on social media, with some garnering hundreds of thousands of views and shares. “Each of these videos documents a war crime,” noted Al Jazeera in a review of footage shared by Israeli soldiers. Yet despite the self-documented atrocities –– the “most documented genocide in history,” to cite Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour –– the soldiers will likely escape justice as they enjoy total immunity in Israel, where courts have a pathetic track record of prosecuting war crimes committed by Israelis.
Some of the soldiers who murdered Palestinian children have been hailed as heroes by the Israeli military and political leaders. In March, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir saluted an Israel Defense Forces sniper who shot a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, saying the soldier “deserves an award.” Ben-Gvir has called on Israeli soldiers to kill children and women in Gaza. Bone-chilling reports by Israeli outlets reveal that soldiers have been told “it’s permissible to shoot everyone” in Gaza, children included.
This impunity is easy to imagine when Israeli leaders and politicians have routinely claimed that “there are no innocents in Gaza”; when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls people in Gaza “children of darkness”; and when a supposedly “liberal” Knesset member says “the children of Gaza have brought this upon themselves.”
Israel has made no secret of its genocidal crimes against civilians in Gaza. Israeli politicians and top generals have openly suggested to nuking Gaza or annihilate it like Dresden and Hiroshima. One former Israeli lawmaker recently invoked Adolf Hitler as an inspiration for Israel’s plan to ethnically cleanse Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli politicians have openly celebrated their atrocities in Gaza. Following Israel’s destruction of north Gaza, Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu mused: “The north of the Gaza Strip, more beautiful than ever. Everything is blown up and flattened, simply a pleasure for the eyes … We will hand over lots to all those who fought for Gaza over the years.”
Much of this genocidal rhetoric pouring from the upper echelon of the Israeli government was cited as damning evidence at the International Court of Justice genocide hearing in January. Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, who have called for measures that starve Palestinians in Gaza, among other crimes. Israel’s Channel 14 reports that the ICC could issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant within the next two weeks.
This is the same army the United States is funding and arming to the hilt, and lavishing with billions in tax dollars, unconditional diplomatic support and defense from criminal trial. The U.S. has even allowed tax deductions for Israeli settler groups who block humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Despite overwhelming evidence of Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza — much of which has been proudly provided by Israeli soldiers themselves — Congress has decided, with bipartisan blessing, to welcome Benjamin Netanyahu, a genocidal war criminal, who will address U.S. lawmakers for the fourth time on July 24. He is set to receive standing ovations, and likely more funds and weapons, and a license to massacre more Palestinians. This is plainly a bipartisan nod to genocide.
Unbound by the moral corruption of the U.S. political class, anti-genocide activists are calling for a mass mobilization to arrest Netanyahu for war crimes. Jewish Voice for Peace and dozens of partner organizations will issue a mass notice of citizen’s arrest for Netanyahu. Humanity itself is at stake. If there remains a shred of justice in this world, Netanyahu should be arrested for his war crimes on the Senate floor.
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