Israel’s “most moral army” accused of turning Gaza into blood sport

The Israeli military, long touted as the “most moral army in the world,” faces growing accusations of routinely committing war crimes in Gaza, according to analysts and medical personnel on the ground.

While killings, beatings, and arbitrary arrests of Palestinians are not new, experts warn of a disturbing escalation: soldiers allegedly operate with near-total impunity, emboldened by dehumanisation, far-right ideologies, and a lack of accountability, according to Al Jazeera.

Haim Bresheeth, author of An Army Like No Other, described Israel’s military conduct as “a snowball running down a hill to which there’s no bottom.”

He said the violence has escalated year after year, with the targeting of civilians becoming the logical outcome. According to Bresheeth, Israel’s infantry has turned killing into “a new sport, a blood sport” that grows from the ground up.

He characterised the behaviour as twisted, murderous, and sick.

“As far as I can see, this is a new phenomenon,” said Erella Grassiani of the University of Amsterdam, who has studied the moral “numbing” of Israeli soldiers during the 2000-second Intifada.

“Previously, there were some kind of rules of engagement, even if they were loosely followed, but they were there. What we’re seeing now is completely different,” she said.

Accounts from Gaza describe soldiers shooting civilians for target practice or entertainment, including children. A BBC investigation of 160 cases in early August found 95 children shot in the head or chest—injuries incompatible with “intended to wound only.”

British surgeon Nick Maynard, who recently returned from Gaza, described aid distribution sites run by the self-styled GHF as “death traps.” He said chaos at these sites is exploited as a pretext for firing into crowds.

“I was operating on a 12-year-old boy, who later died,” Maynard said. “He’d been shot at one of the GHF sites. I had a conversation about it with a colleague in the Emergency Room later, who told me that he and other medics had seen repeated and strong patterns of wound grouping,” he explained, suggesting deliberate targeting of civilians.

An Israeli soldier interviewed by +972 in July 2024 described total freedom to shoot: “If there is [even] a feeling of threat, there is no need to explain – you just shoot … it is permissible to shoot at their centre of mass [their body], not into the air. It’s permissible to shoot everyone, a young girl, an old woman.”

Of 52 probes into alleged crimes between October 2023 and June 2025, 88 per cent were stalled or closed with no action, according to Action on Armed Violence (AOAV). Only one resulted in a prison sentence. AOAV reported that the 52 cases involved 1,303 killed, 1,880 wounded, and two reported torture victims.

The dehumanisation of Palestinians stretches back decades. As early as 1967, Israeli officials publicly denied Palestinians’ humanity. Studies of Hebrew children’s literature and schoolwork decades later found Palestinians depicted as “inhuman, war lovers, devious monsters, bloodthirsty dogs, preying wolves, or vipers.”

Grassiani said the process is now complete: “We’ve seen incredibly cruel acts from the first day to now, with Israeli soldiers seeking revenge for [the Hamas-led attack of] October 7.”

By Aghakazim Guliyev