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The Myth of Israel's "Killing Fields"

(Spiked-UK) Maj. (ret.) Andrew Fox - This week, Ha'aretz reported that IDF soldiers had "deliberately fired" at Palestinians as they tried to access aid-distribution centers operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation - a private, American-run organization that is supported by the IDF. The IDF rejects any claims soldiers were instructed to fire at Palestinians accessing aid. The most significant problem with the Ha'aretz report is that the original Hebrew version of the article says something quite different from the widely reported English version. It reports that soldiers were ordered to fire warning shots toward crowds, not at them. This is a common practice for militaries, and one the British Army frequently used in Afghanistan. It is shooting in the air, or far short of a crowd, or well off to the side - done to send a warning, not to take a life. The anonymous soldier quoted by Ha'aretz claims that the IDF has used machine guns, grenade launchers and mortars on unarmed crowds queuing for aid. Yet the source says this "killing field," in which soldiers use "everything imaginable," results in around "one [to] five" deaths a day. That is not a "killing field," unless the IDF are the worst shots in military history. This is clearly not the number of deaths you would expect if an advanced military had been instructed to target crowds of unarmed civilians with "everything imaginable." The writer, who served in the British Army in 2005-21, is a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society and a lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
2025-07-03 00:00:00
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