Israeli soldiers admit using lethal crowd control tactics at Gaza aid sites under orders from superiors

• Israeli soldiers admit to deliberately slaughtering unarmed Palestinian civilians at Gaza aid sites under a policy called Operation Salted Fish.
• IDF troops use heavy weapons such as machine guns, grenades, artillery against civilians gathering for food, with no evidence of threats.
• Private contractors earn $1,500 per demolished Gazan home while IDF forces provide lethal “security,” incentivizing mass destruction.
• Israeli officials dismiss credible reports as “blood libel,” despite soldiers confessing to indiscriminate killings.
• The IDF’s so-called “moral army” façade crumbles as soldiers describe Gaza as a lawless killing zone with no accountability.

A disturbing report from Israel’s oldest newspaper, Haaretz, has shattered the facade of the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) claims to moral superiority in Gaza. Soldiers and officers have admitted, in chilling detail, that they routinely use machine guns, grenade launchers, and even artillery to kill unarmed Palestinian civilians approaching food distribution sites in a barbaric policy they call “Operation Salted Fish.”

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry reports that at least 529 civilians have been killed at these aid centers since late May, with the U.S. military acknowledging the figures as “generally reliable.” Yet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismisses the revelations as “blood libel,” while the IDF insists the allegations are “vicious lies.”

But the facts speak for themselves. Soldiers on the ground describe the killing fields in Gaza with harrowing clarity:

“It’s a killing field. Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force—no crowd-control measures, no tear gas—just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.”

This is not warfare. This is state-sponsored slaughter.

The mechanics of massacre: Operation Salted Fish

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a murky U.S.-Israeli-backed aid group operating under Netanyahu’s approval, runs distribution centers that open for just one hour each morning. According to IDF insiders, troops are ordered to shoot civilians who arrive too early or linger afterward, all under the pretext of maintaining security.

One IDF officer explained the deadly logic: “At night, we open fire to signal to the population that this is a combat zone and they mustn’t come near. Once, the mortars stopped firing, and we saw people starting to approach. So we resumed fire to make it clear they weren’t allowed to. In the end, one of the shells landed on a group of people… [In another incident], we fired machine guns from tanks and threw grenades.”

The name Operation Salted Fish, an Israeli version of Red Light, Green Light, reveals the grim dehumanization at play. Civilians are treated as pawns in a lethal game where the penalty for “moving” at the wrong time is summary execution.

Even IDF soldiers acknowledge the madness. “There’s no enemy, no weapons,” admits one serviceman. “I’m not aware of a single instance of return fire.”

The IDF’s Gaza demolition racket: Killings for profit

Beyond the aid site massacres, another grotesque reality emerges: private contractors are incentivized to demolish Gazan homes for $1,500 per house, with IDF troops providing deadly “security” for their work.

“Today, any private contractor working in Gaza with engineering equipment receives 5,000 shekels for every house they demolish,” said a veteran IDF soldier. “They’re making a fortune… So, for a contractor to make another 5,000 shekels and take down a house, it’s deemed acceptable to kill people who are only looking for food.”

This is the inevitable outcome of a military-industrial machine that values destruction over humanity. Soldiers admit that Gaza has become a “parallel universe” where commanders act as judge, jury, and executioner, with Southern Command turning a blind eye.

“[Nobody asks] why that weapon was needed in the first place,” said a senior officer. “What concerns everyone is whether it’ll hurt our legitimacy to keep operating in Gaza. The moral aspect is practically nonexistent.”

Rise in killings prompts hollow “investigations”

After especially deadly incidents, including three June massacres where 50 or more civilians were slaughtered at food sites, IDF leadership held superficial internal discussions. The focus? Not preventing murders but preserving Israel’s public image.

The IDF’s Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism is now allegedly reviewing these atrocities, but soldiers say accountability is a farce. Meanwhile, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz dismiss the entire scandal as “blood libel”—an absurd defense given the first-hand admissions of IDF personnel.

The IDF claims to be the “most moral army in the world.” Yet the testimony of its own soldiers exposes a military culture where contractors demolish homes for profit, snipers gun down starving children, and commanders sanction artillery strikes on breadlines, all while U.S. taxpayers fund this carnage.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

Haaretz.com

MiddleEastEye.net