According to the soldiers’ testimony, everyone who crosses the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza is shot – whether they are civilians or not.
– Out of 200 bodies, only ten could be confirmed to be Hamas members, a soldier told the newspaper.
It is about a seven kilometer long line that divides Gaza, just south of Gaza City. There, Israel has built a road “that will facilitate raids” according to CNN.
Although the line does not appear on maps or in official orders, it is called the “line of dead bodies”, according to one commander:
– After a shooting, the bodies are left and attract packs of dogs that eat them. People in Gaza know that where you see such dogs, you should not go there.
Expert: “Confirms the picture”
The Middle East expert Anders Persson describes that CAVs cover-up confirms what many other reports show: that the Israeli military commits extensive abuses against civilians.
– It comes from Israel’s most respected newspaper internationally, which has a very good reputation. It strengthens the credibility of what similar reports have established, he says and refers, among other things, to HRW’s report.
“Death numbers have become a competition”
Another former officer tells Haaretz that the military’s statements about the death toll have become a competition between units:
– If Division 99 kills 150 people, the next unit’s target will be 200.
The same person describes how the military kills civilians at the Netzarim Corridor and counts them as “terrorists”.
Another testified that soldiers continued to shoot a person approaching the corridor for one to two minutes, laughing. It later turned out to be a civilian 16-year-old:
– In the evening, our battalion commander congratulated us on killing a terrorist and said he hoped we would kill ten more tomorrow.
“Spit on survivors”
According to another testimony, four unarmed people were spotted by a surveillance drone. Although they were clearly not militiamen, they were fired upon with “hundreds of bullets”. One survived.
– We put him in a cage set up near our position, took off his clothes and left him there, the soldier tells the newspaper and continues:
– Passing soldiers spat on him.
According to Anders Persson, this type of disclosure means that there are good reasons to question Israel’s data on the number of combatants killed.
– What does the relationship really look like between dead civilians and combatants? We don’t know that.