A new report published by the Israeli human rights group Breaking the Silence details disturbing accounts from Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers who participated in operations inside Gaza, revealing what they describe as a methodical, state-sanctioned campaign of destruction and indiscriminate killing. Based on extensive testimony from Israeli troops, the report outlines the creation of a vast military-controlled “kill zone” inside Gaza and the deliberate targeting of both infrastructure and civilians during the ongoing war.
The report, titled The Perimeter, exposes how Israeli forces razed approximately 16% of the Gaza Strip to construct a wide buffer zone along the border with Israel. That area—once home to 35% of Gaza’s agricultural land—was transformed into what soldiers repeatedly referred to as a “death zone.” The destruction, the report says, was carried out in a manner that left “no crops, structures, or people.”
“To create this area, Israel launched a major military engineering operation that, by means of wholesale destruction, entirely reshaped about 16 percent of the Gaza Strip… an area previously home to some 35% of Gaza’s agricultural land,” the report states. “The perimeter extends from the coast in the north to the Egyptian border in the south, all within the territory of the Gaza Strip and outside of Israel’s internationally recognized borders.”
“The mission given to soldiers in the field, as revealed in their testimonies, was to create an empty, completely flat expanse about a kilometer wide along the Gaza side of the border fence,” the publication continues. “This space was to have no crops, structures, or people. Almost every object, infrastructure installation, and structure within the perimeter was demolished.”
“Palestinians were denied entry into the area altogether, a ban which was enforced using live fire, including machine gun fire and tank shells. In this way, the military created a death zone of enormous proportions,” the report adds. “Places where people had lived, farmed, and established industry were transformed into a vast wasteland, a strip of land eradicated in its entirety.”
Breaking the Silence, founded in 2004 by IDF veterans, compiled these accounts from soldiers who served in combat and engineering units throughout the invasion. Their testimonies paint a picture of a war zone in which civilian life was not only disregarded but actively obliterated.
“The testimonies demonstrate that soldiers were given orders to deliberately, methodically, and systematically annihilate whatever was within the designated perimeter, including entire residential neighborhoods, public buildings, educational institutions, mosques, and cemeteries, with very few exceptions,” the paper says. “Industrial zones and agricultural areas which served the entire population of Gaza were laid to waste, regardless of whether those areas had any connection whatsoever to the fighting.”
One sergeant from the combat engineers corps described daily missions to destroy homes and buildings: “Get up in the morning, each platoon gets five, six, or seven locations, seven houses that they’re supposed to work on. We didn’t know a lot about the places that we were destroying or why we were doing it. I guess those things today, from my perspective now, are not legitimate. What I saw there, as far as I can judge, was beyond what I can justify that was needed.”
Other soldiers reported orders to shoot on sight anyone entering the perimeter, with no clear distinction between combatants and civilians. One captain said, “Anyone who crosses a certain line, that we have defined, is considered a threat and is sentenced to death.”
The mentality, according to multiple testimonies, was that all Palestinians in Gaza were potential enemies. A reservist officer stated: “There is no civilian population [in Gaza], they’re terrorists, all of them.” When asked to describe the landscape after IDF operations, the same officer replied, “Hiroshima.”
The buffer zone reportedly varied from 800 to 1,500 meters in width, far exceeding the prewar 300-meter buffer that had existed under prior military policy. Satellite imagery and field reports have corroborated the systematic destruction of hundreds of buildings in the area. Rights groups have raised alarm that this may amount to collective punishment, a violation of international law.
Despite the deadly consequences of entering the zone, soldiers said that Palestinians continued to return, often out of desperation. With Gaza under blockade and food scarce, civilians sought to pick hubeiza, a wild edible plant, from the devastated land.
“The IDF really is fulfilling the public’s wishes, which state: ‘There are no innocents in Gaza. We’ll show them,’” said one reserve warrant officer. “People were incriminated for having bags in their hands. Guy showed up with a bag? Incriminated, terrorist. I believe they came to pick hubeiza, but… boom,” tank shells were fired at him from half a mile away.
In an interview with The Guardian, the same officer recounted the psychological transformation experienced by many soldiers during the campaign. “I went there because they killed us and now we’re going to kill them,” he said. “And I found out that we’re not only killing them—we’re killing them, we’re killing their wives, their children, their cats, their dogs. We’re destroying their houses and pissing on their graves.”
Other testimonies echoed a complete erosion of the rules of engagement. A captain in the armored division said there were “no clear rules of engagement at any point,” and described “a generally massive use of firepower” including tank fire without specific targets, often intended to induce fear or destruction “for no reason.”
“For women and children, [the order was] ‘shoot to drive away’, and if they come close to the fence, you stop [them]. You don’t kill women, children, or the elderly. ‘Shoot to drive away’ means a tank fire,” said one sergeant in the armored corps. But these orders, they said, were inconsistently applied and varied by unit.
The BTS report follows an earlier Haaretz investigation from December, which also cited soldier testimony about a “kill zone” in Gaza’s Netzarim corridor. One commander described it as “the line of dead bodies.” “After shootings, bodies are not collected, attracting packs of dogs who come to eat them,” the commander said. “In Gaza, people know that wherever you see these dogs, that’s where you must not go.”
As these revelations surface, Israel’s military campaign continues to draw international scrutiny. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, currently in Washington, D.C. for talks with former President Donald Trump and other officials, faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The International Court of Justice is also considering genocide charges against Israel.
According to the Associated Press, Israeli forces now control more than half of Gaza’s territory, forcing over two million Palestinians into shrinking, overcrowded areas. The new buffer zone, critics warn, may be part of a broader strategy of permanent land seizure and recolonization.
Netanyahu’s far-right government has reportedly coordinated with Trump on plans to remove Palestinians from Gaza and transform the area into a so-called “Riviera of the Middle East.” The current operation has already displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip, often multiple times.
Meanwhile, the death toll continues to rise. More than 180,000 Palestinians have been reported dead, maimed, or missing since the war began. On April 8, an IDF strike hit a tent outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, killing journalist Hilmi al-Faqaawi and another man. Witnesses reported they were burned alive as others tried in vain to save them. The IDF later claimed it was targeting a Hamas member posing as a journalist. More than 230 journalists have been killed since October 2023.
“Places where people had lived, farmed, and established industry were transformed into a vast wasteland, a strip of land eradicated in its entirety.” – Breaking the Silence
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