In video footage shared by Al-Jazeera, an Israeli soldier is applauded for killing an unarmed deaf Palestinian man in a house that they stormed in Gaza City.
In more evidence of Israeli forces targeting unarmed civilians in the Gaza Strip, a soldier is seen on video being lauded for killing a 73-year-old deaf Palestinian man in a raid on a house.
“I killed him with four bullets,” the soldier boasted in the bodycam footage, shared by Al-Jazeera’s channel as well as on social media.
“We opened the door, he fluttered, came in my direction and did like this,” the soldier gesticulated, saying “No, No.”
“He was the only one?” another asked. “There could be more. There was another room, we didn’t have time.”
“And he did like this? No, no?” a soldier asked.
“Yes. No, No,” the soldier replied, clearly indicating the man was unarmed as he was waving his hands in front of him.
“And you took him down? Excellent,” another replied.
An Israeli soldier brags about murdering an unarmed elderly Palestinian “with 4 bullets” while his hands were up and begging for his life.
The other soldiers praise him for it, shake his hand, pat his shoulder & say “all the respect”!
The execution and the celebration that… pic.twitter.com/o8KFjyaODU
— Laith Arafeh 🇵🇸 (@ArafehLaith) March 10, 2024
The Israeli soldiers laughed.
Another asked, “Llor. What happened? What did you see there?”
“A man,” the soldier replied.
“What, without a weapon? He had something on him?” the other responded.
“No, no, he hid beside the bed,”
“All respect!” another said, as the soldier smiled in response and they shook hands.
Israeli soldiers are seen on the footage entering the house and firing shots.
“Did you shoot everything here?” one is heard asking.
Thereafter, the soldier is seen firing, and coming into focus on the bodycam is a man slumped on the ground between a bed and a cupboard.
Al-Jazeera has identified the man as Atta Ibrahim, aged 73, and reported the killing took place in the Al-Shati neighbourhood, west of Gaza City.
The channel also obtained information that Israeli forces killed 50 civilians in the same area, and destroyed and bulldozed homes and facilities.
It said the victim’s family has demanded information indicating his burial place.
The footage is reportedly from the bodycam of a deceased soldier, and the date of the incident is unclear.
One social media commented on the footage: “So much video evidence online of genocide for the court at The Hague.”
‘Evidence of Genocidal Intent’
Israel is currently on trial before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for genocide against Palestinians, since it launched at attack on the Gaza Strip following October 7.
At the ICJ hearing in January, South Africa contended that “the evidence of genocidal intent” by Israel in Gaza “is not only chilling” but “also overwhelming and incontrovertible.”
Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitob said there was “now a trend” among soldiers to film themselves committing atrocities against civilians in Gaza.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 31,045 Palestinians have been killed, and 72,654 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire.’
(PC, AJA)