Israeli Soldiers Describe the Breakdown of Discipline and Mass Killings of Civilians in Gaza

Israeli servicemen describe total loss of control in Gaza and the destruction of previous norms and constraints: they say civilians are being killed at the whim of individual commanders. Their testimonies are featured in the ITV documentary “Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War”, which is set to premiere on Monday.

“If you want to fire without restraint—you can,” says Daniel, a commander in an IDF tank unit. In his words, discipline and standards of conduct in the enclave have collapsed.

Some contributors agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity; others appeared openly. All maintain that the army’s formal code of conduct toward civilians has, in practice, ceased to apply.

The soldiers interviewed confirm that troops routinely use civilians as human shields, contrary to official denials, and describe cases in which Israeli units opened fire without cause on people rushing to food distribution points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an organisation backed by the US and Israel.

“In basic training, we were taught the principle of ‘means, intent and capability’,” recalls armoured corps officer Captain Yotam Wilk, referring to the official IDF rule that a soldier may fire only if a target has the means, intent and capacity to inflict harm.

“In Gaza, those concepts don’t exist,” Wilk says. “No one talks about ‘means, intent and capability’. There is only suspicion: you’re walking where you’re not supposed to; you’re a man between twenty and forty—that alone is enough.”

Another soldier, identified in the film as Eli, says: “Life and death are not determined by instructions or rules of engagement. Everything depends on the conscience of the commander on the ground.”

According to Eli, under such conditions the notion of an “enemy” or “terrorist” becomes arbitrary: “If someone walks too fast, he’s suspicious. Too slow—also suspicious. So he must be plotting something. Three men walking, one falls behind—it’s ‘two and one’, so that’s a military formation.”

Eli recalls an incident in which a senior officer ordered a tank to bring down a building in an area designated as safe for civilians. “There was a man on the roof hanging laundry. The commander decided he was a spotter. But he wasn’t a spotter—he was hanging laundry, it was obvious. He had no binoculars, no weapon. The nearest soldiers were six or seven hundred metres away. Unless he had the eyesight of an eagle, how could he have been correcting fire? But the tank fired. Part of the building collapsed. The result—many dead and wounded.”

An analysis of Israeli military data conducted by The Guardian in August found that, by the army’s own internal estimates, 83% of those killed in Gaza were civilians—a record figure for modern conflicts. The IDF has disputed these findings. Official figures state that more than 69,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, and the death toll continues to rise despite a ceasefire that has now been in place for a month.

In a written response, the IDF said: “The Israel Defense Forces remain committed to the rule of law and act in accordance with their legal and ethical obligations, despite the unprecedented complexity created by Hamas’s systematic use of civilian infrastructure and facilities for military purposes.”

Some of the soldiers who took part in Breaking Ranks admitted that their conduct had been influenced by statements from Israeli politicians and religious leaders claiming that, after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks—which killed some 1 200 Israelis and foreign nationals—every Palestinian had become a legitimate target.

In September a UN commission concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza bore the hallmarks of genocide. In assessing intent, its experts cited statements by Israeli leaders, including President Isaac Herzog, who declared shortly after the attack: “The entire nation there is responsible. It is not true that there are innocent civilians who are unaware and uninvolved. That is absolutely incorrect.”

Daniel, the tank unit commander, says in the film that such rhetoric filtered directly into the army: “You hear it all the time, and you start to believe it.”

In response to questions from journalists, Herzog’s spokesperson said the president had consistently advocated humanitarian measures and the protection of civilians.

The makers of Breaking Ranks also cite testimony suggesting that the idea of collective responsibility was propagated by some military rabbis. “One day the brigade rabbi sat down next to me and spent half an hour explaining that we should do exactly what they did on 7 October. That we must take revenge on everyone—including civilians. That there must be no distinction, and only then can we win,” recalls Major Neta Caspin.

Rabbi Avraham Zarviv, a radical cleric who spent more than 500 days in Gaza, claims: “Everything there is a single terrorist infrastructure.” Zarviv not only offered religious justifications for the destruction of Palestinian neighbourhoods; he also personally operated army bulldozers. He says it was at his initiative that the IDF moved to mass procurement of armoured construction vehicles. “The army is investing hundreds of thousands of shekels to destroy Gaza. We changed the behaviour of the entire army,” he says in the film.

The soldiers interviewed in Breaking Ranks corroborate numerous reports that Palestinians were used as human shields—a practice informally known as the “mosquito protocol”. “You send a person underground. He walks through the tunnel while an iPhone sewn into his vest transmits GPS coordinates. That is how officers map the passage. And the practice spread instantly. Within a week, every company had its own ‘mosquito’,” Daniel says.

The IDF, in its response, said it “prohibits the use of civilians as human shields or forcing them to take part in military operations”. Commanders, the statement added, were repeatedly reminded of this during the war.

“All allegations of violations are thoroughly examined, and whenever specific information is provided, a full investigation is launched,” the IDF stressed. “In several instances, the Military Police have opened investigations into the use of Palestinians in military operations. These investigations are ongoing.”

The filmmakers also spoke with a contractor named Sam, who worked at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution points. He said he had witnessed Israeli soldiers killing unarmed civilians.

“At one distribution point, two young men were simply running with the crowd towards the food. I saw two soldiers rush after them, drop to their knees and fire. Both men’s heads snapped back—and they fell,” Sam recalls. He also describes an incident in which an IDF tank near another distribution site obliterated “a regular car with four civilians inside”.

According to UN figures, at least 944 Palestinians were killed near GHF distribution points while trying to obtain humanitarian aid. Both GHF and the Israeli military deny carrying out deliberate attacks on civilians, insisting that the army operates in line with international law and takes measures to minimise civilian casualties. The IDF has said that internal probes into civilian deaths have led to virtually no disciplinary or criminal consequences.

Breaking Ranks also shows the psychological strain some soldiers in Gaza say they are under. “I feel they have destroyed everything I was proud of—being an Israeli, an IDF officer. All that is left is shame,” Daniel says at the end of the film.