Amira Haas, whose writing often appears on this blog, interviews Gaza residents:
n the midst of all of this were plastic bottles of urine and many closed bags – in some houses, olive-colored ones – of excrement. People assumed that the commanders stayed there. There are houses where excrement was smeared on the walls, or where dry piles of it were found in corners. In many cases, the smells indicated that soldiers had urinated on piles of clothing or inside a washing machine. In all the houses the toilets were overflowing and clogged, and there was filth all around. When the Abu Eidas returned to house No. 5 in Jabalya, they discovered pots of urine and excrement in the refrigerator.
When we were soldiers during the first Intifada, our “bases” would often be in unfinished buildings in the middle of Palestinian towns and cities. 50-60 soldiers were stuck together in one room. We were fed awful canned rations and couldn’t leave exept when we went out on patrol. We wouldn’t vandalize the buildings we were in, but we were older reservists for the most part, who acted with greater restraint. Nonetheless, we felt and acted like caged animals. Based on those experiences, I wouldn’t say the vandalism is necessarily a purposeful act directed at the residents. Rather it is likely an expression of the barbaric state to which the soldiers had been brought to, both by the war itself and the conditions in which they lived.
Tags: Israeli Army, War Crimes