The soldiers you sent to fight in Gaza have themselves become "collateral damage"

The executive director of Breaking the Silence claims that soldiers who served in Gaza have themselves become "collateral damage" of the war. He describes testimonies from soldiers about orders that horrified them, including using Palestinians as human shields and permitting the killing of up to 20 civilians for every low-level Hamas operative. According to him, the attack against the creators of the film "No Other Land" was intended to intimidate soldiers into silence, while the real culprits are the senior officers and politicians who set the policy.

The executive director of Breaking the Silence, the author of this opinion piece, claims that the soldiers Israel sent to fight in Gaza have themselves become "collateral damage" of the war. He describes conversations with dozens of male and female soldiers who came to testify to the organization, including officers, drone operators, artillerymen, and ground maneuver troops. The testimonies, he says, revealed orders that horrified the soldiers, including using Palestinians as human shields and permitting the killing of up to 20 civilians for every low-level Hamas operative. The author claims that the public attack against the creators of the film "No Other Land" is not aimed at them but at the soldiers themselves, with the goal of intimidating them and preventing them from speaking. According to him, the real responsibility lies with the senior officers and politicians who set a policy of starvation and destruction, not with the soldiers on the ground. He notes that tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians have died as collateral damage, and that some of the hostages were narrowly saved from the bombings. The author states that the soldiers are collateral damage for the policymakers, but despite the code of silence, the witnesses continue to come and speak.