Israeli soldiers allowed to shoot Palestinians in Gaza 'virtually at will': report

A new investigation by Israeli outlets +972 Magazine and Local Call has found that Israeli soldiers have been shooting Palestinians, including civilians "virtually at will" during their operations in Gaza.

Israeli soldiers told the outlets of near-total absence of firing regulations, "with troops shooting as they please, setting homes ablaze, and leaving corpses on the streets" all with their commanders's blessings.

"There was total freedom of action," B., an anonymous soldier who served in Gaza, said. "If there is [even] a feeling of threat, there is no need to explain — you just shoot."

B. said that when someone is approaching. "it is permissible to shoot at their centre of mass [their body], not into the air. It’s permissible to shoot everyone, a young girl, an old woman."

Even when dealing with Israeli hostages in Gaza, soldiers "didn’t have a specific directive", as the incident in which the army accidentally killed three hostages did not cause any significant changes to the open-fire regulations.

Soldiers even freely fired at civilians entering so-called "no-go zones", and their corpses are often left to rot, only removed ahead of the arrival of humanitarian aid convoys so that "images of people in advanced stages of decay don’t come out".