After they entered Gaza on October 27, after three weeks of aerial bombardment following Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israel, Israeli troops took their iPhones with them.
“We stay in an period of know-how, and this has been described as the primary livestreamed genocide in historical past,” Palestinian novelist Susan Abulhawa advised Al Jazeera’s investigative unit (I-Unit).
Within the yr since, Israeli troopers have posted hundreds of movies and photographs on Instagram, Fb, TikTok and YouTube.
These movies and photographs type the inspiration of the I-Unit’s new movie, which investigates Israeli struggle crimes primarily by way of the medium of the proof Israeli troopers themselves have supplied.
It’s, in keeping with Rodney Dixon, a global regulation knowledgeable featured within the movie, “a treasure trove which you very seldom come throughout … one thing which I feel prosecutors shall be licking their lips at”.
How was this investigation carried out?
As journalists within the West sought to painting the struggle on Gaza as advanced and nuanced, a flood of social media posts from Israeli troopers steered they regarded it as something however.
The I-Unit determined to analyze these posts.
It anticipated to should dedicate appreciable assets to geolocation – using satellite tv for pc maps and different sources to establish particular areas – and to using facial recognition software program to scan the web to establish the troopers featured within the photographs and movies. What it discovered, nonetheless, was that, for probably the most half, troopers posted materials in their very own names on publicly accessible platforms and infrequently gave particulars of when and the place the incidents depicted passed off.
The I-Unit started accumulating these movies and photographs, compiling a database of greater than 2,500 social media accounts.
It confirmed the footage to a variety of navy and human rights specialists, together with Dixon, Charlie Herbert, a retired major-general within the British Military, and Invoice Van Esveld, the affiliate director for the Center East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch.
It additionally employed groups on the bottom to movie the testimony of witnesses and made use of Israeli drone footage collected by Al Jazeera Arabic.
What did the investigation discover?
The behaviour displayed within the photographs and movies ranges from crass jokes and troopers rifling by way of ladies’s underwear drawers to what seems to be the homicide of unarmed civilians.
It is going to be for prosecutors to resolve the guilt or in any other case of the troopers, however each Dixon and Van Esveld advised Al Jazeera that a number of of the incidents documented merited investigation by worldwide investigators.
Many of the photographs and movies fell into considered one of three classes: wanton destruction, the mistreatment of detainees and using human shields. All three could also be violations of worldwide humanitarian regulation (IHL) and struggle crimes beneath the Rome Statute of the Worldwide Prison Court docket.
Wanton destruction
The movies steadily present troopers smashing up and destroying property and possessions. Others present homes being set alight. Probably the most generally recurring characteristic was the detonation of buildings.
“The truth that they’ve been capable of rig these buildings up with explosives exhibits very clearly that there’s no present menace from these buildings,” Herbert advised Al Jazeera.
“There’s no justification for destroying a construction if the enemy isn’t in it,” mentioned Van Esveld. “You may’t go round wantonly, unnecessarily destroying … civilian property … It’s banned,” he added. “And if you happen to do sufficient of it, it’s a struggle crime.”
What does IHL say concerning the destruction of property?
Article 8(2)(a)(iv) of the Rome Statute prohibits “in depth destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by navy necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly”.
Mistreatment of detainees
A number of the movies present massive numbers of detainees stripped to their underwear, being held in stress positions and mocked for having dirty themselves. One exhibits bare and near-naked detainees, certain and blindfolded, being kicked and dragged round on the ground.
In a single video, a French-Israeli soldier movies a detainee being pulled from the again of a truck and says: “Look, I’m going to indicate you his again. You’re going to snort at this. He was tortured.”
“Torture is likely one of the most critical worldwide crimes … Fairly often, although, it’s tough to get proof … This type of materials the place you have got individuals on digital camera admitting that they’ve participated in torture could be very helpful to any investigator or a prosecutor,” Dixon advised Al Jazeera.
Troopers’ movies are complemented by witness testimony gathered by the I-Unit’s workforce in Gaza. The movie contains three accounts of beating and abuse.
“They took my son, the eldest, who had simply been married,” mentioned Abu Amer. “He was tortured. I might hear his screams as they have been suffocating him and beating him within the adjoining room. There was nothing we might do with the rifles pointed at our heads. We couldn’t make a transfer.”
Abu Amer says a soldier advised his son: “Nothing prevents us from killing you. We might simply kill you all. That’s regular. Nobody will deter us, and nobody will name us to account.”
Girls have been additionally abused. Hadeel Dahdouh mentioned a soldier kicked her within the abdomen. “He beat me on the again with the gun and on the pinnacle with a chunk of metallic in his hand. I mentioned to him, ‘loosen the handcuff’, however he would solely tighten it additional.”
One other Palestinian from Gaza, Fadi Bakr, mentioned he was pressured to lie on a decomposing corpse by a soldier who threatened to govt him.
Later, on the Sde Teiman detention centre in Southern Israel, he mentioned he noticed guards utilizing a canine to rape a younger male inmate.
What does IHL say concerning the mistreatment of detainees?
Article 8 (2)(a)(ii) of the Rome Statute prohibits “torture or inhuman therapy, together with organic experiments”; whereas Article 8 (2)(b)(xxi) prohibits “committing outrages upon private dignity, specifically humiliating and degrading therapy”.
We have constructed a database of movies, photographs and social media posts. The place doable we’ve recognized those that seem.
It reveals a variety of unlawful actions, from wanton destruction and looting to demolitions of neighbourhoods and homicide. #GazaCrimespic.twitter.com/LmKn7fVnZH
— Al Jazeera Investigations (@AJIunit) October 3, 2024
Human shields
The I-Unit interviewed six people who testified to getting used as human shields by Israeli troops.
Abu Amer described how throughout clashes between Israeli troopers and Palestinian fighters, the Israeli troopers “took us, the lads, and positioned us close to the balcony. They positioned their weapons above our heads and fired on the younger males on the opposite aspect.”
He says he was then pressured to examine buildings for booby traps and ambushes whereas a soldier monitored him from a balcony with a machinegun. “He mentioned, strive something and I’ll shoot you.”
Footage gathered by Al Jazeera Arabic helps this. It exhibits a detainee being pressured to examine empty buildings whereas being monitored by a drone.
Separate footage exhibits bloodied detainees being fitted with cameras to allow them to enter buildings troops haven’t but secured.
A photograph taken by an Israeli soldier in Gaza Metropolis in November – and posted on-line – exhibits two detainees strolling in entrance of a tank with a soldier behind them. In an interview, one of many males later described how they have been coerced and used as human shields.
On the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in February a younger man was pressured to behave as a messenger by the Israelis, ordering displaced folks to evacuate the constructing. The person was then shot useless by a sniper in entrance of his mom.
Utilizing folks to carry out navy duties is “in some ways the definition of utilizing individuals as a human defend”, Dixon defined.
The I-Unit interviewed the sufferer’s mom and one other witness.
What does IHL say about using human shields?
Article 8 (2)(b)(xxiii) of the Rome Statute prohibits “using the presence of a civilian or different protected particular person to render sure factors, areas or navy forces immune from navy operations”.
Are there any explicit items that characteristic prominently within the photographs and movies?
The 8219 Fight Engineering Battalion – also called the Gadhan Commando – options prominently in movies posted on-line.
It destroyed a whole bunch of buildings in Gaza Metropolis after which progressed to the south of the Strip the place, between December 28 and June 9, it fully destroyed Khirbet Khuza’a, a city of 13,000 folks near the fence separating Gaza from Israel.
“We … destroyed an entire village as a revenge for what they did to Kibbutz Nir Oz on 7/10,” wrote Captain Chai Roe Cohen of the 8219 battalion’s C Firm in an Instagram publish on January 7. Nir Oz lies simply on the opposite aspect of the fence from Khirbet Khuza’a and was attacked on October 7, with about one-quarter of its residents killed or taken captive.
“The revenge rhetoric that we’ve heard from some Israeli troopers … is disturbing. Atrocities don’t justify atrocities,” Van Esveld advised Al Jazeera.
The 8219 was commanded throughout its operations in Gaza by Lt Col Meir Duvdevani.
“The Worldwide Prison Court docket will … look for individuals who are excessive up the chain of command … and proof coming straight from commanders concerning the orders that they gave and the best way wherein they command and management the troops could be important proof,” mentioned Dixon.
The I-Unit additionally scrutinised a video positioned on-line by a soldier known as Shalom Gilbert, a member of the 202 Paratroopers Battalion. The video exhibits three unarmed males being killed by snipers.
“Simply because a civilian is strolling in an space the place fight is occurring doesn’t make them truthful recreation … In the event that they get entangled in hostilities at a specific second, sure, they lose their civilian standing. They are often focused. However then you must present the proof that they’re presenting a menace to you … It’s doubtlessly a matter that the Worldwide Prison Court docket would need to take a look at,” mentioned Dixon.
The 202 contained a sniper workforce, often called the Ghost Unit, comprising 21 people.
Western complicity
The Israeli authorities is presently beneath investigation for genocide on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice. This raises the likelihood that any nations which have lent help to Israel’s struggle effort may be open to fees.
Between 2019 and 2023, 69 % of Israeli arms imports got here from america and 30 % from Germany. Each have continued to provide weaponry all through this battle, though German provides have dipped for the reason that starting of this yr.
The movie options reporting by Declassified UK, which exhibits the central position performed by the British base at RAF Akrotiri on the island of Cyprus. The British have been working surveillance flights over Gaza since early December, supposedly to facilitate the rescue of Israeli captives.
Within the movie, Declassified’s Matt Kennard argued that this “doesn’t clarify” the flights. There have been “solely two British hostages in Gaza … There was as much as 1,000 hours of [surveillance] footage by March.”
The R1 Shadow planes the British use have goal acquisition capability.
And it additionally exposes the complicity of Western governments – specifically using RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus as a base for British surveillance flights over Gaza. #GazaCrimes pic.twitter.com/Xhh3bnbSPK
— Al Jazeera Investigations (@AJIunit) October 3, 2024
“Once you begin performing in a battle to a stage that the folks on the bottom who’re doing the combating are utilizing your info as they battle,” chances are you’ll develop into “a celebration to the battle”, Van Esveld defined.
“If you happen to proceed to know and proceed to provide weapons and focusing on info, if you happen to’re supplying focusing on info, regardless of understanding what the result’s, and the result’s a gross human rights violation, then you definitely additionally get to complicity. So, you realize, the deniability that you just’re deeply concerned in what’s happening in Gaza begins to evaporate,” he added.
The I-Unit requested the UK authorities about its surveillance flights. It advised us: “The UK just isn’t a participant within the battle between Israel and Hamas … As a matter of precept, we solely present intelligence to our allies the place we’re happy that will probably be utilized in accordance with Worldwide Humanitarian Regulation … Solely info associated to hostage rescue is handed to the Israeli authorities.”
It added: “Our precedence stays attaining a ceasefire in Gaza so hostages will be launched, civilians protected and assist flood in.”
