Tel Aviv, February 23 (RHC)-- The Israeli army's chief of staff Herzi Halevi has instructed troops “not to film revenge videos” after footage was used as evidence in the case against the regime for genocide before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
In a message to the Israeli army earlier this week, Halevi stated that "we must be careful not to take anything that is not ours – a souvenir or weapons – and not to film revenge videos.”
An Israeli veterans’ organisation said on Wednesday the troops in Gaza are publishing videos of items they’ve looted from Gaza. "We’ve collected many testimonies over the years from different areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which occurred in varying circumstances. But these past few months have been different," it said.
The organization noted that “looting has never been normalized in the way it has over the last four months. It’s never been done with such glee, knowing that the Israeli public and the world are watching – and all with such little interest from the military’s top brass, not to mention our politicians.”
Media reports indicated that the Israeli army has looted nearly $25 million worth of money and gold artifacts from the Palestinians’ houses across the Gaza Strip amid the ravages of the months-long war.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor recently revealed that Israeli forces are systematically looting Palestinians’ homes across the besieged territory, stealing their property in addition to killing thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip. It added that Israeli soldiers participate in and witness the deliberate theft of the assets and money of Palestinian civilians, including laptop computers, gold, and large quantities of cash.
In recent months, dozens of Israeli soldiers also appeared in videos documenting retaliatory actions in Gaza since Oct. 7. Videos showed Israeli soldiers blowing up Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip in revenge for dead troops amid a deadly offensive on the war-battered region.
The Israeli army looted nearly $25 million worth of money and gold artifacts from the Palestinians across the Gaza Strip since the breakout of the war, according to Gaza Media Office.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Israeli military chief also confessed the Palestinian resistance fighters were far from being defeated in Gaza. “We have been fighting for four months, and we still have a long way to go,” he said.
