The killing fields of Gaza: Netanyahu accuses 'Haaretz' of defaming IDF
Describing the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) as the ‘most moral military in the world’, Netanyahu and Katz angrily described a recent report in the Haaretz newspaper as ‘malicious falsehoods’ designed to defame Israel’s army.
“The state of Israel absolutely rejects the contemptible blood libels that have been published in the Haaretz newspaper,’ the joint statement said, reported Haaretz
The term ‘blood libel’, the newspaper explained, refers to false accusations against Jews in medieval Europe of murdering Christian children in ritual sacrifices. The false accusations were used to justify the persecution of Jews.
The newspaper published, on 27 June 2025, an article headlined ‘IDF soldiers ordered to shoot deliberately at unarmed Gazans waiting for humanitarian aid’.
The report went on to state: ‘IDF officers and soldiers told Haaretz that they were ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, prompting the military prosecution to call for a review into possible war crimes.
‘One Israeli soldier attested that civilians seeking aid were “treated like a hostile force — no crowd-control measures, no tear gas — just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars.”’
Another soldier was quoted as saying, “We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred meters away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there is no danger to the forces.” The soldier added, “I’m not aware of a single instance of return fire. There is no enemy, no weapons.”
IDF sources told Haaretz that Gaza had become “a place with its own set of rules” where they are interacting with civilians with whom “your only means of interaction is opening fire”. Deadly military weapons are used as crowd control to steer the starving populace wherever it is determined they are supposed to be, routinely killing desperate aid seekers.
One soldier described being instructed to fire artillery shells at a crowd to keep them at a distance, saying, “Every time we fire, there are casualties and deaths, and when someone asks why a shell is necessary, there’s never a good answer. Sometimes, merely asking the question annoys the commanders.”
Several Israeli soldiers described atrocities they were ordered to commit which they knew were wrong.
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‘When Netanyahu’s Government wants to shut us down, it is time to read Haaretz
Haaretz also published last week an article that put the death toll in Gaza since 7 October 2023 close to 100,000 — much higher than other estimates. The data places the conflict in Gaza among the deadliest conflicts of the 21st century, both in terms of the ratio of combatants to non-combatants killed as well as the death rate relative to population size.
Survey data, consistent with figures from the Palestinian health ministry, show that 56 per cent of the victims were either women or children under the age of 18 — an unusually high proportion compared to nearly all other wars since World War II, including those in Kosovo (20 per cent) northern Ethiopia (9 per cent), Syria (20 per cent), Colombia (21 per cent), Iraq (17 per cent) and Sudan (23 per cent), the report claimed.
The new study by Prof. Michael Spagat of Royal Holloway, University of London, and Palestinian political scientist Dr Khalil Shikaki took into account direct war casualties besides indirect deaths caused by hunger, disease and lack of medical care. The study refutes the Israeli military's claim of a ‘1:1 ratio’ of combatant to civilian deaths.
Even if Israeli assertions of 20,000 combatant deaths are accepted, the survey estimates indicate four civilians killed for every militant, far exceeding official claims.
Spagat emphasised that Gaza's social support networks and international aid had temporarily mitigated some of the indirect mortality. He warned that “waves of excess mortality” are likely to come in the months ahead, however, given the ongoing displacement, still-collapsing healthcare, malnutrition and mass destruction of infrastructure.
The ministry of health in Gaza reported on Saturday, 28 June, that at least 81 people were killed and 422 injured over the previous 24 hours alone as a result of Israeli attacks.