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Breaking the Silence Profile picture
@BtSIsrael
Jun 16, 2021 • 9 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
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BIG NEWS:
Head of IDF Central Command ends the practice of 'mapping'—invasions into homes of innocent Palestinians in the oPt. Huge credit to @sfardm's petition on behalf of @YeshDin & @PHRIsrael and a report we co-authored w/ them which described exactly what mapping looks like.
Despite our many testimonies, many claimed there's no way soldiers enter homes of Palestinians who aren't suspected of anything. Now it's clear that this was part of the IDF's routine in the oPt. It's hard to underestimate the impact of this decision on the lives of Palestinians.
Clearly, the occupation is still very much with us: soldiers will still invade Palestinian homes for other reasons and we'll have to wait and see if this decision is actually implemented. life-exposed.com/eng/
But if this proves anything, it's that silence-breaking works. It's a slow process, and it requires us - civil society orgs and all those for whom human rights are important - to keep working at it. But every small victory like this one is another crack in the wall of occupation.
Here's a reminder about what mapping is: A home invasion by armed soldiers, usually in the dead of night, to sketch a map of the house and collect details on its *innocent* residents. Imagine your home being a place in which you can never feel totally safe.haaretz.com/israel-news/.p…
"Enter a house, wake everybody up at around 2-3 [AM], old people, adults, women, children. You wake everybody up, gather them all in the living room... Two (soldiers) stay with them, collect IDs, write things down." - 1st Sgt., 50th Battalion, Hebron, 2016.bit.ly/2Sw3L5O
But intelligence was never the entire reason for carrying out mappings. The real purpose was to "demonstrate our presence"—to constantly remind the Palestinians living under occupation that we're in charge, and we have the right and ability to enter their houses whenever we want.
"I had the pictures for around a month, no one came to get them... no commander asked about them, no intelligence officer took them. I realized it was all for nothing. It was just to be there." 1st Sgt., Nahal Brigade, Hebron, 2008-10.
So yes, we're pleased with this development. Mappings could only happen where the local population lacks basic rights. Now it's time to set our sights on our next target: ending the security bubble surrounding settler violence. So speak up - until the occupation ends.

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More from @BtSIsrael

Breaking the Silence Profile picture
Jan 8
On Monday, the IDF admitted that it used a vehicle disguised as a civilian ambulance to transport soldiers during a raid on the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank, last month.

And so - a quick thread on military exploitation of civilian infrastructure🧵
As the IDF knows well, medical transport vehicles lose their protected status under international law if they’re used for the purpose of attacking an enemy

And this isn’t even the first time the IDF has concealed attacking soldiers in an ambulance. Here’s a testimony from 2002 >
"There was a commando unit that came from a distance. They came in armored ambulances with Stars of David on the side and back. [...] I was surprised that an ambulance is used for concealing combat soldiers for an attack, for there are rules about using medical symbols."

>>
Read 10 tweets
Breaking the Silence Profile picture
Jan 5
When we say military pressure kills hostages, we’re not just basing that on a hunch. We’re relaying what the IDF itself has shown us, both in its words and in its actions, since October 7, 2023. The army knows these two goals contradict each other.

Let’s look at a few examples🧵
"It's a very thin line - both being aggressive and offense-minded and also protecting the lives of the hostages." Lt. Col. Oz Meshulam, who commands IDF infantry battalion 931, said last month. "I try not to let the fighter get involved in this at all."
ynet.co.il/news/article/b…
"The fighter is a vicious animal that goes on an aggressive attack, and therefore we as commanders choose where to operate, carefully and according to precise intel," Meshulam added, concluding that "In the end, we are here on two missions that sometimes conflict."
Read 8 tweets
Breaking the Silence Profile picture
Jan 2
Over 45,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct 7. That’s 15,000 more than the IDF estimate for total Hamas members who were alive before then. A rate of death outpacing the wars in Myanmar, Ukraine and Iraq. And Hamas still stands.

The IDF has placed pace above accuracy🧵
The @nytimes and @washingtonpost recently dropped 2 huge investigations interviewing over 100 soldiers. One details how the IDF let go of its few remaining brakes, permitting a massive increase in civilian deaths. The other analyzes the IDF’s disastrous overreliance on tech.
After the Oct 7 attack, Israel dropped many, many bombs on Gaza. More than it had ever dropped before. That same day, the IDF loosened its rules to allow up to 20 civilian deaths for each junior militant, and over 100 for a senior militant. Its target bank was depleted in days.
Read 11 tweets
Breaking the Silence Profile picture
Dec 25, 2024
On Christmas Eve, the IDF's "Gazafication" of the West Bank was on full display, as 8 Palestinians, including two innocent women, were killed by drone strikes in Tulkarm, and bulldozers destroyed infrastructure in the Nur Shams refugee camp.

This is not an isolated incident 🧵
The IDF returned to routine airstrikes in the West Bank, a practice which was reserved mainly for Gaza for decades until this govt came to power in early 2023. And more firepower means more “collateral damage.” Last night, 9 Palestinians were injured, including a 10-year-old boy.
Bulldozers have reportedly destroyed part of the camp's water network, multiple houses and shops, and some of the walls of the al-Salam mosque, where Hamas militants had barricaded. One source told Haaretz that the forces’ activity focused mainly on "peeling" the roads apart.
Read 8 tweets
Breaking the Silence Profile picture
Dec 19, 2024
"The forces in the field call it 'the line of dead bodies'" a commander in Division 252 told @yanivkub of @haaretzcom. The line he’s describing is invisible, constantly shifting, and for any Gazans north of the Netzarim corridor, it’s the very border separating life from death.🧵
In a chilling collection of testimonies, soldiers detail the everyday realities of an IDF “kill zone,” north of the IDF corridor which bisected Gaza. Unarmed civilians posthumously labeled as terrorists by the hundreds, all while restrictions on shooting are near nonexistent.
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…
One soldier describes an occasion where a teenager who crossed into the kill zone was shot dozens of times, and how his battalion commander justified killing him:

“The commander said: ‘Anyone crossing the line is a terrorist, no exceptions, no civilians. Everyone's a terrorist'"Image
Image
Read 11 tweets
Breaking the Silence Profile picture
Dec 18, 2024
What can we learn from IDF spokesperson responses? Let’s take, for example, a recent report by @haaretzcom, which detailed a rapid rise in the amount of IDF airstrikes on IDF-declared safe zones. Each line of the response is a masterclass of whitewashing - let’s break them down🧵 Image
A quick recap:
In less than a month, the IDF bombed the al-Mawasi Humanitarian Zone in northern Gaza at least 8 times. The IDF has bombed safe zones before, but this is a rapid and brutal acceleration. For comparison, from late May to Sept 10, al-Mawasi was bombed 5 times. Image
“Hamas is systematically exploiting the humanitarian zones.”

This is almost exactly what they said in July, after a massive airstrike in al-Mawasi killed over 90 people. So once again: Hamas risking Gazans doesn’t mean we’re free to realize that risk.
Read 9 tweets

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