The Executioners
The World Turned Upside Down
A young girl seeking food in Gaza. Jaber Jehad Badwan Creative Commons
As of June 28, 2025, sixty-six children in Gaza are reported to have died from starvation. About one hundred twelve are being hospitalized every day due to malnutrition. Last week, because of a lack of formula, two infants died at the Al-Nassar Hospital in Khan Younis.
On February 27, 2025, Elad Barashi, a TV producer associated with Israel’s Channel 14, wrote in a now-deleted post on X that:
Gaza deserves death. The 2.6 million terrorists in Gaza deserve death! … Men, women, and children – in every way possible, we must simply carry out a Holocaust on them – yes, read that again – H-O-L-O-C-A-U-S-T! For me, gas chambers. Train cars. And other cruel forms of death for these Nazis. Without fear, without hesitation – simply crush, eradicate, slaughter, flatten, dismantle, smash, shatter …. Gaza deserves death. Let there be a Holocaust in Gaza.
Based on their troops’ behavior, some mid-level commanders of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) appear to have adopted Mr. Barashi’s philosophy.
In order to get food to the Palestinians in Gaza, the United States and Israel created the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). At the end of May, barely a month ago, the GHF opened four distribution centers, three operating in southern Gaza and one in central Gaza. In June, the Rev. Johnny Moore was named head of the GHF. Moore has been a close religious associate of President Trump’s since 2016 and supports the President’s plan to expel all the Palestinians from Gaza and create a new “Middle East Riviera.” He has stated that, "Anti-Zionism is antisemitism."
Each of the distribution centers serves thousands, sometimes tens-of-thousands, of Gazans each day. They are open for one hour each morning and the times vary each day. Haaretz reports:
According to officers and soldiers who served in their areas, the IDF fires at people who arrive before opening hours to prevent them from approaching, or again after the centers close, to disperse them.
One soldier told Haaretz:
It's a killing field. Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They're treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.
The soldier added, “But there's no danger to the forces. I'm not aware of a single instance of return fire. There's no enemy, no weapons."
If it's meant to be a warning shot, and we see them running back to Gaza, why shoot at them? Sometimes we're told they're still hiding, and we need to fire in their direction because they haven't left. But it's obvious they can't leave if the moment they get up and run, we open fire.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz called reports of the killings by IDF soldiers “blood libels.” Blood libel is the untrue accusation by medieval (and later) Christians that Jews used the blood of sacrificed Christian children in their rituals.
An officer told Haartez:
Working with a civilian population when your only means of interaction is opening fire – that's highly problematic, to say the least. It's neither ethically nor morally acceptable for people to have to reach, or fail to reach, a [distribution center] under tank fire, snipers and mortar shells.
The officer continued:
At night, we open fire to signal to the population that this is a combat zone and they mustn't come near. Once, the mortars stopped firing, and we saw people starting to approach. So we resumed fire to make it clear they weren't allowed to. In the end, one of the shells landed on a group of people.
We fired machine guns from tanks and threw grenades. There was one incident where a group of civilians was hit while advancing under the cover of fog. It wasn't intentional, but these things happen.
These acts are not something the officers and soldiers decided on their own to do.
Brigadier General Yehuda Vach, commander of an IDF division, had previously been identified by Haaretz as being involved with unnecessary killings in the Netzarim corridor, endangering soldiers, and being suspected of leveling a hospital without authorization. An officer in his division said that it was Vach who decided to disperse Gazans waiting for food with live fire. “This is Vach’s policy, but many of the commanders and soldiers accepted it without question.”
A senior officer told Haaretz:
When we asked why they opened fire, we were told it was an order from above and that the civilians had posed a threat to the troops. I can say with certainty that the people were not close to the forces and did not endanger them. It was pointless – they were just killed, for nothing. This thing called killing innocent people – it's been normalized. We were constantly told there are no noncombatants in Gaza, and apparently that message sank in among the troops.
A soldier said:
You know it's not right. You feel it's not right – that the commanders here are taking the law into their own hands. But Gaza is a parallel universe. You move on quickly. The truth is, most people don't even stop to think about it.
When you fire your weapon or machine gun or mortar you feel you’re in control. You think you don’t have to imagine what happens at the other ends of your weapons. You feel that it’s not really you doing the killing but something bigger than you and beyond your control, something beyond your responsibility.
But that’s all not true. Tens of thousands of Israeli reservists have refused call-ups to serve. Draftees have refused induction. Some are in prison. But they’re not killing people. Even at the last second, you can refuse to fire or fire high.
Since the end of May, 549 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 4000 wounded while seeking food.
For the officers and soldiers who do fire, there is no justice. There will be investigations, but there will be no justice.
There will be forms of payment, however. As we’ve pointed out here before, killing in war is the primary indicator for PTSD and moral injury. As one Vietnam veteran related:
They weren’t human when I killed them, but it’s like they’re returning from their graves. Now I see them as they were—not enemies, not things, just people. They weren’t supposed to become human again!
Tellingly, the Israeli government does not release statistics for suicides among soldiers or veterans.
None of this would be possible without funding from the United States.
Sources:
Kyle Anzalone, “Israeli Soldiers Ordered to Fire on Aid-Seekers in Gaza,” Antiwar.com, June 27, 2025. https://news.antiwar.com/2025/06/27/israel-orders-soldiers-to-fire-on-aid-seekers-in-gaza/
Nir Hasson, Yaniv Kubovich and Bar Peleg, “'It's a Killing Field': IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid,” Haaretz, June 27, 2025. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-27/ty-article-magazine/.premium/idf-soldiers-ordered-to-shoot-deliberately-at-unarmed-gazans-waiting-for-humanitarian-aid/00000197-ad8e-de01-a39f-ffbe33780000?utm_source=pocket_saves
Arwa Mahdawi, “‘Gaza must be eliminated’: Israel’s airwaves are filled with pro-genocide propaganda,” The Guardian, June 27, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/27/israel-gaza-propaganda?utm_source=pocket_shared
The New Arab Staff, “Who is Johnnie Moore, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's new chief?” The New Arab, June 4, 2025. https://www.newarab.com/news/who-johnnie-moore-gaza-humanitarian-foundations-new-chief
News Desk, “Over 60 Palestinian children died of starvation in Gaza due to Israeli blockade,” The Cradle, June 28, 2025. https://thecradle.co/articles/66-children-starve-to-death-in-gaza-as-israel-maintains-blockade-bans-baby-formula
Edward Tick, War and the Soul (Wheaton, Il: Quest Books, 2005). Executioners
The World Turned Upside Down
As of June 28, 2025, sixty-six children in Gaza are reported to have died from starvation. About one hundred twelve are being hospitalized every day due to malnutrition. Last week, because of a lack of formula, two infants died at the Al-Nassar Hospital in Khan Younis.
On February 27, 2025, Elad Barashi, a TV producer associated with Israel’s Channel 14, wrote in a now-deleted post on X that:
Gaza deserves death. The 2.6 million terrorists in Gaza deserve death! … Men, women, and children – in every way possible, we must simply carry out a Holocaust on them – yes, read that again – H-O-L-O-C-A-U-S-T! For me, gas chambers. Train cars. And other cruel forms of death for these Nazis. Without fear, without hesitation – simply crush, eradicate, slaughter, flatten, dismantle, smash, shatter …. Gaza deserves death. Let there be a Holocaust in Gaza.
Based on their troops’ behavior, some mid-level commanders of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) appear to have adopted Mr. Barashi’s philosophy.
In order to get food to the Palestinians in Gaza, the United States and Israel created the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). At the end of May, barely a month ago, the GHF opened four distribution centers, three operating in southern Gaza and one in central Gaza. In June, the Rev. Johnny Moore was named head of the GHF. Moore has been a close religious associate of President Trump’s since 2016 and supports the President’s plan to expel all the Palestinians from Gaza and create a new “Middle East Riviera.” He has stated that, "Anti-Zionism is antisemitism."
Each of the distribution centers serves thousands, sometimes tens-of-thousands, of Gazans each day. They are open for one hour each morning and the times vary each day. Haaretz reports:
According to officers and soldiers who served in their areas, the IDF fires at people who arrive before opening hours to prevent them from approaching, or again after the centers close, to disperse them.
One soldier told Haaretz:
It's a killing field. Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They're treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.
The soldier added, “But there's no danger to the forces. I'm not aware of a single instance of return fire. There's no enemy, no weapons."
If it's meant to be a warning shot, and we see them running back to Gaza, why shoot at them? Sometimes we're told they're still hiding, and we need to fire in their direction because they haven't left. But it's obvious they can't leave if the moment they get up and run, we open fire.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz called reports of the killings by IDF soldiers “blood libels.” Blood libel is the accusation by medieval (and later) Christians that Jews used the blood of sacrificed Christian children in their rituals.
An officer told Haartez:
Working with a civilian population when your only means of interaction is opening fire – that's highly problematic, to say the least. It's neither ethically nor morally acceptable for people to have to reach, or fail to reach, a [distribution center] under tank fire, snipers and mortar shells.
The officer continued:
At night, we open fire to signal to the population that this is a combat zone and they mustn't come near. Once, the mortars stopped firing, and we saw people starting to approach. So we resumed fire to make it clear they weren't allowed to. In the end, one of the shells landed on a group of people.
We fired machine guns from tanks and threw grenades. There was one incident where a group of civilians was hit while advancing under the cover of fog. It wasn't intentional, but these things happen.
These acts are not something the officers and soldiers decided on their own to do.
Brigadier General Yehuda Vach, commander of an IDF division, had previously been identified by Haaretz as being involved with unnecessary killings in the Netzarim corridor, endangering soldiers, and being suspected of leveling a hospital without authorization. An officer in his division said that it was Vach who decided to disperse Gazans waiting for food with live fire. “This is Vach’s policy, but many of the commanders and soldiers accepted it without question.”
A senior officer told Haaretz:
When we asked why they opened fire, we were told it was an order from above and that the civilians had posed a threat to the troops. I can say with certainty that the people were not close to the forces and did not endanger them. It was pointless – they were just killed, for nothing. This thing called killing innocent people – it's been normalized. We were constantly told there are no noncombatants in Gaza, and apparently that message sank in among the troops.
A soldier said:
You know it's not right. You feel it's not right – that the commanders here are taking the law into their own hands. But Gaza is a parallel universe. You move on quickly. The truth is, most people don't even stop to think about it.
When you fire your weapon or machine gun or mortar you feel you’re in control. You think you don’t have to imagine what happens at the other ends of your weapons. You feel that it’s not really you doing the killing but something bigger than you and beyond your control, something beyond your responsibility.
But that’s all not true. Tens of thousands of Israeli reservists have refused call-ups to serve. Draftees have refused induction. Some are in prison. But they’re not killing people. Even at the last second, you can refuse to fire or fire high.
Since the end of May, 549 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 4000 wounded while seeking food.
For the officers and soldiers who do fire, there is no justice. There will be investigations, but there will be no justice.
There will be forms of payment, however. As we’ve pointed out here before, killing in war is the primary indicator for PTSD and moral injury. As one Vietnam veteran related:
They weren’t human when I killed them, but it’s like they’re returning from their graves. Now I see them as they were—not enemies, not things, just people. They weren’t supposed to become human again!
Tellingly, the Israeli government does not release statistics for suicides among soldiers or veterans.
None of this would be possible without funding from the United States.
Sources:
Kyle Anzalone, “Israeli Soldiers Ordered to Fire on Aid-Seekers in Gaza,” Antiwar.com, June 27, 2025. https://news.antiwar.com/2025/06/27/israel-orders-soldiers-to-fire-on-aid-seekers-in-gaza/
Nir Hasson, Yaniv Kubovich and Bar Peleg, “'It's a Killing Field': IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid,” Haaretz, June 27, 2025. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-27/ty-article-magazine/.premium/idf-soldiers-ordered-to-shoot-deliberately-at-unarmed-gazans-waiting-for-humanitarian-aid/00000197-ad8e-de01-a39f-ffbe33780000?utm_source=pocket_saves
Arwa Mahdawi, “‘Gaza must be eliminated’: Israel’s airwaves are filled with pro-genocide propaganda,” The Guardian, June 27, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/27/israel-gaza-propaganda?utm_source=pocket_shared
The New Arab Staff, “Who is Johnnie Moore, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's new chief?” The New Arab, June 4, 2025. https://www.newarab.com/news/who-johnnie-moore-gaza-humanitarian-foundations-new-chief
News Desk, “Over 60 Palestinian children died of starvation in Gaza due to Israeli blockade,” The Cradle, June 28, 2025. https://thecradle.co/articles/66-children-starve-to-death-in-gaza-as-israel-maintains-blockade-bans-baby-formula
Edward Tick, War and the Soul (Wheaton, Il: Quest Books, 2005).