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These accounts, from the boot-on-the-ground, are just disgusting.
There's like over 50 of these, I posted 7 for your enjoyment.Operation Cast Lead Testimonies
Testimony 1 Human Shield
People are called Johnnie. Theyre Palestinian civilians in Gaza neighborhoods. In checking out houses, we send the neighbor in, the Johnnie, and if there are armed men inside, we (use) pressure cooker procedures .to get them out alive .to catch the armed men. When necessary, combat helicopters are called in to fire anti-tank missiles at civilian homes. Then send a Johnnie in to check for dead and wounded.
In one home, two were dead and another alive, so supersized Caterpillar D-9 bulldozers start demolishing the house over him until the neighbor went in and got him out.
Human shields were also used to check for booby-traps and perform other services. Sometimes the force would enter while placing rifle barrels on a civilians shoulder, advancing into the house and using him as a human shield. Commanders said these were the instructions and we had to do it.
Testimony 2 House Demolitions
Residential buildings at strategic points were taken over by force. Neighborhoods were described with lots of destroyed houses .ruins .more and more ruins, and even the houses still standing, most of them kept getting shelled . Other houses were blasted .blown up in the air with explosives.
Operational necessity sometimes meant a whole neighborhood was destroyed so as not to jeopardize Israeli soldiers (and with) the day after in mind, meaning to disrupt Gaza life to the maximum and leave it that way after forces pulled out.
Testimony 3 Rules of Engagement
Descriptions included enter(ing) a yard and out of sheer fear the family was waiting in an exposed spot a father, grandfather, young mother and babies. As we were coming in, the commander was firing a volley, and mistakenly killed an innocent. We got to the house .he goes in with live fire .the family was hiding from the bombings .he happened to kill an elderly guy .it really seems insane .if I look at it from the (other) side, there are people who deserve to go to jail.
Testimony 4 Rules of Engagement & Home Occupation
Tactics taught are dry and wet entries. In Gaza, there was no such thing as a dry entry. All entries were wet, meaning free-firing with missiles, tank shells, machine guns, grenades, everything. On the ground, wet entry orders were to shoot as we enter a (house or) room (so) no one there could fire at us.
Testimony 5 Atmosphere
What bothered me? Many things .all that destruction. All that fire at innocents. This shock of realizing with whom Im in this together .the hatred, and the joy of killing .I killed a terrorist .blew his head off .Theres nothing to hold you back. Theyre just Arabs.
Testimony 6 Bombardment
The new 120mm Mortar was used in Gaza with 95 100% accuracy. When it hits, it scatters shrapnel all around. It was used against neighborhoods. Innocents were hit, and our artillery fire there was insane .
Most of the time firing was for softening resistance I think .We simply received orders. If we hit terrorists, then I guess that was the purpose.
Testimony 7 Rules of Engagement
The commander stressed using fire power from the air and on the ground. You see something and youre not quite sure? You shoot .Fire power was insane. We went in and the booms were just mad. The minute we got to our starting line, we simply began to fire at suspect places .a house, a window .In urban warfare, anyone is your enemy. No innocents. Houses were taken over with soldiers positioned inside according to plan.