Israeli soldiers tell Channel 4 News (UK) they were ordered to “cleanse” Palestinian neighbourhoods in a documentary by Israeli filmmaker Nurit Kedar. A quibble with the introduction: it suggests that Operation Cast Lead was started because of ineffectual Palestinian rockets, which were merely a pretext.
A 24-year-old tank commander remembers being told that the Israeli soldiers entry into Gaza was intended to be “disproportionate”:
We needed to cleanse the neighbourhoods, the buildings, the area. It sounds really terrible to say “cleanse”, but those were the orders….I don’t want to make a mistake with the words.
94% of Jewish israelis approved of the war crimes committed against the people of Gaza. 94% of Jewish israelis approved of the war crimes committed against the people on board the Gaza aide convoy.
Remember that when hearing israelis saying they are being coerced into committing war crimes by others. Especially long after the fact when said war crimes become viewed as such by most of the world.