Israeli newspaper claim IDF operates shoot-to-kill policy in Gaza sparks outrage among far-right
An investigation by the left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz that has uncovered a deliberate Israeli Defense Force (IDF) shoot-to-kill policy has generated outrage in Israel.
An investigation by Haaretz journalists has revealed both soldiers and army officers were, in their words, 'ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present'.
That outrage, however, has come not from concerned citizens, opposition leaders, or the mainstream media, but from the leaders on the far-right and the government itself, who have described the accusations as both false and outrageous.
The mayor of one city in Israel announced he was banning the sale of Haaretz newspaper. 'The municipality will not allow false incitement against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel, certainly in times of war," said Arad mayor Yair Maayan.
Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Israeli minister of defense Israel Katz described the investigation as a 'blood libel', despite graphic details in Haaretz, which included the following confession of one Israeli soldier.
"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 centre opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach.
Our form of communication is gunfire.
Mainstream television news stations in Israel have, for a second day running, largely ignored the unfolding Haaretz story.
I have written many times how the television news channels in Israel have not shown, do not show, the most harrowing images Irish viewers have seen every night for almost two years. Picture: Khames Alrefi/Anadolu via Getty Images
Watching Israeli news in the past few days, one could be forgiven for thinking Gaza simply did not exist.
I have written many times how the television news channels in Israel have not shown, do not show, the most harrowing images Irish viewers have seen every night for almost two years.
These are the images of grieving parents hugging the dead and bloodied bodies of their children, draped across their arms after an Israeli airstrike.
But in the 12 days of war between Iran and Israel, that voluntary censorship or denial of the reality in Gaza has reached new levels of shocking indifference.
Understandably, the focus of all Israeli media was the ongoing war with Iran, the daily barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles, but watching the mainstream television channels in the past three weeks, one would never know scores of Palestinians were killed by the IDF almost daily.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, 600 people have been shot and killed near food distribution aid centres since late May. Picture: Eyad Baba / AFP via Getty Images
According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, 600 people have been shot and killed near food distribution aid centres since late May.
For the past year and a half, the Hamas terror attack of October 7 and the fate of the remaining hostages have remained centre stage in the evening news. During this short Iran-Israel war, even stories on the remaining hostages had largely disappeared. Starkly put, Gaza, its two million Palestinian inhabitants, have vanished from Israel's eyes.
With much of the international media reporting on the direct testimony of Israeli soldiers' admission of undisputed war crimes, the Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, and Ynet — the online news service of Israel's largest-selling daily newspaper — all but ignored the Haaretz lead story. As of Monday morning, the shoot-to-kill did not feature in any of their top 20 headlines.
The focus of one lead story in a mainstream news channel on Sunday evening was the arrival of the jellyfish season and how the warming waters of the Mediterranean were attracting increasing swarms of jellyfish that risked damaging water treatment facilities in the coastal city of Ashkelon.
The city of Ashkelon is just 11km from the border with Gaza. That such a story lay greater claim to news coverage than reports of shoot-to-kill war crimes investigation by arguably Israel's most reputable newspaper Haaretz is a damning indictment on many in the television journalistic profession in Israel. Welcome to the deeply dystopian propaganda 'Zone of Interest' of Israeli television news.
Propaganda has, of course, always been part of war. 'There are no innocents in Gaza" is perhaps the most harmful and frequently repeated slogan heard in Israel today, presumably meant to dehumanise Palestinians and downplay the extent of the humanitarian crisis.
The images of grieving parents hugging the dead and bloodied bodies of their children, draped across their arms after an Israeli airstrike are not seen on Israeli television. Picture: Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images
Joseph Goebbels, arguably the master of propaganda, used similar language to dehumanise the entire Jewish race, writing in 1942: 'The Jews have deserved the catastrophe that has now overtaken them.'
But what makes the propaganda of Israeli television news extraordinary in an era of instant communication and social media is the role their silence plays in shaping the minds of middle Israel.
With the US seemingly unwilling and Europe seemingly unable to put enough pressure on the Israeli government to stop the daily killings, sitting here in Tel Aviv I strongly believe the failure of Israeli news channels to reveal the truth of what is happening in Gaza plays a significant role in sustaining this war. It is a news story in itself that is rarely acknowledged inside or outside of Israel.
It is important to emphasise that few of these news presenters and political pundits are Netanyahu supporters or defenders of the government; most are strong critics of the Israeli far-right.
However, this very political stance provides them and their Israeli viewers at home with political cover to look the other way regarding the horrors in Gaza. It is also this same political stance that explains why many of these Israeli celebrity news presenters are celebrated on international podcasts and foreign media outlets, as their role and culpability in what is happening in Gaza continue to be largely ignored or unchallenged.
Paul Kearns is a freelance journalist from Dublin who lives in Tel Aviv
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