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Four unnamed Israeli soldiers told the Haaretz newspaper that troops in the military intelligence directorate (AMAN) were instructed to strike buildings in the Gaza Strip known to house civilians without first evacuating them, resulting in hundreds of Palestinian deaths and injuries. Their accounts contradict claims by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the army that evacuation warnings were issued before attacks.

One soldier, identified as A., said intelligence units had almost no prior knowledge of Hamas and began locating members and activists from scratch after October 2023. He said criteria for classifying someone as a terrorist were quickly loosened and that rules allowing the killing of civilians not involved in fighting as "collateral damage" were largely relaxed. Another soldier, D., said dozens of civilians were knowingly killed in an October 31, 2023 strike on the Jabalia refugee camp targeting Hamas commander Ibrahim Biari, adding that occupied buildings were destroyed and no evacuation was carried out.

Soldier A. said military intelligence estimates had anticipated 250 to 300 casualties in that attack, with the approval sent directly to the chief of staff, and that roughly 250 civilians were later found to have died. A drone-unit soldier, B., said strikes carrying a risk of killing or injuring around 20 Palestinian civilians did not require approval from superiors. Nadav Weiman of the veterans' group Breaking the Silence said accepting hundreds of civilian deaths to assassinate one Hamas member cannot be justified.

Key Takeaways

• Israeli soldiers told Haaretz they were ordered to bomb buildings with civilians still inside and without evacuation
• Estimates of 250 to 300 casualties in the Jabalia strike were reportedly approved at chief-of-staff level
• The army reportedly relaxed rules on target classification and heavy munitions, allowing more civilian deaths