Palestinians look for survivors after an Israeli airstrike on a house belonging to the Adwan family in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Dec. 1, 2023. (Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa via Getty Images)
(JTA) — The Israeli army substantially loosened its rules of engagement in the weeks immediately following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, according to a new investigation by The New York Times.
A seven-member reporting team, interviewing more than 100 people including senior military officials, documented that the Israel Defense Forces suspended or relaxed rules meant to limit civilian casualties; relied on contested methodologies to assess risk to civilians; and struck targets with less intelligence than in previous conflicts.
Those changes contributed to an estimated death toll in the first two months of the war of more than 15,000, including, in some instances, dozens of family members of suspected Hamas operatives.
While some of the rules were strengthened again subsequently, the IDF’s official tolerance for civilian casualties remains higher than before the war, according to the report, which confirms and deepens reporting by Israeli media organizations, including the left-wing +972 Magazine.
“While some commanders tried hard to maintain standards, five senior officers used the same phrase to describe the prevalent mood inside the military: ‘harbu darbu,’” the New York Times reported. “It is an expression derived from Arabic and widely used in Hebrew to mean attacking an enemy without restraint.” (“Harbu Darbu” is also the name of an Israeli pro-war pop anthem that shot to the top of the charts after Oct. 7.)
The Israeli army told the newspaper that it had changed its rules of engagement but emphasized that it has “consistently been employing means and methods that adhere to the rules of law” and noted that Hamas embeds itself in civilian populations and does not itself make any effort to follow international law regarding war.
The New York Times report noted one case in which an Israeli rocket killed a Palestinian Islamic Jihad senior commander who in 2014 had evaded a previous attempt on his life after getting warnings meant to safeguard civilians. The strike that killed the operative last year, the newspaper reported, came without warning and killed 20 members of his extended family, including a baby.
Palestinian health authorities say more than 45,000 people have been killed in Gaza in the 14 months since Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters invaded Israel, killing 1,200, mostly civilians, and taking 250 hostage. The health authorities’ figure does not differentiate between civilians and combatants and has not been independently verified, though Israeli authorities have not countered it.
Israel’s practices in Gaza have triggered global criticism as well as International Criminal Court charges against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an International Court of Justice case accusing it of genocide. Israel rejects the criticism and denies the charges.
While most of the scrutiny of the IDF’s operations has come from abroad, recently the discourse has opened up in new ways inside Israel.
The left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz — which has drawn government sanctions over its critical editorials — last week published a report quoting several unnamed military personnel, some senior, describing the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza as a “kill zone” where no distinctions were drawn between civilians and combatants. At times, army units effectively competed to see how many people they could kill, one source told the newspaper.
“Calling ourselves the world’s most moral army absolves soldiers who know exactly what we’re doing,” a senior reserve commander told Haaretz. “It means ignoring that for over a year, we’ve operated in a lawless space where human life holds no value. Yes, we commanders and combatants are participating in the atrocity unfolding in Gaza. Now everyone must face this reality.”
The army rejected the allegations in the Haaretz story.
The reporting has spurred debate within Israel about its veracity — and whether it should be reported even if it might be true.
A reservist who has written publicly about his experience during the war sent an email rebutting the claims to the listserv of a prestigious international Jewish fellowship that he participated in.
“I cannot account for the discrepancies between what was printed and the reality. But I was there. This is not the reality,” wrote Yoni Heilman, whose unit has spent seven months in Gaza, including three in the Netzarim Corridor. “Nothing about this article reflects what is happening, what we were doing for three months. How we relate to Palestinian civilians, to Hamas combatants. To each other.”
Media coverage of the war should not be trusted, wrote Heilman, who moved to Israel from the United States. (His brother, Uriel Heilman, is the director of business development at 70 Faces Media, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s parent company.)
“We cannot but rely upon our trust in those who make battlefield decisions; our understanding of the morals and policies that guide warfare, and the decision-makers at the top. Personally, I take tremendous comfort from my direct knowledge of the first two,” he wrote in the column, which has since circulated widely via email.
Meanwhile, Eylon Levy, a pro-Israel media personality who represented the prime minister’s office early in the war and has continued to advocate for Israel online, defended the value of the reporting on Israeli TV earlier this week. Prompted to criticize Haaretz for supplying Israel’s critics with ammunition, Levy did not bite.
“If I may express an unpopular opinion, I think the press should report the truth as it is. I think the media owes answers to us, the citizens, and not to people abroad, and it should report the truth without consideration for how it will play,” he said.
“But as a hasbara man, don’t you see the damage it does?” asked Levy’s interlocutor, the popular TV host Avri Gilad, using the Hebrew word meaning public diplomacy.
“Absolutely,” Levy answered. “So maybe people should not do things that are wrong, instead of criticizing the reporters.”
He added, “When it comes to reporting the truth and the facts of what’s happening on the ground, within the parameters of the military censor and the law, I don’t think the media should censor itself out of fear of what people outside the country will think.”
Most Israelis believe that the war is just and have confidence in the IDF, according to public opinion surveys. But a majority say they endorse a full end to the war in order to secure the release of the 100 Israelis still being held hostage in Gaza.
Hopes for a ceasefire and hostage deal flared last week but have dimmed in recent days as Israel and Hamas have each accused the other of obstructing an agreement. Meanwhile, conditions remain grim for the 2 million Palestinians who remain in Gaza, with virtually all displaced from their homes. Multiple babies have died of exposure and hypothermia as winter sets in, including one early Thursday, according to local doctors cited in international media.
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