The diary Haaaretz has published an article that destroys that phrase so often repeated by the Israeli authorities that theirs is the “most moral Army in the world.” Uniformed personnel who have served in Gaza, in the offensive launched for two years after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, crudely expose human rights violations that they even compare with the Nazi Holocaust.
They speak of “moral injury,” a psychological wound distinct from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), marked by guilt, shame, and broken moral identity.
One of them says that they put a Gazan civilian in a cage, stripped him naked, and a soldier urinated on him while the others laughed. Another, who emptied his machine gun at an old man with three children. When the commander arrived at the scene of the crime, he spat on the bodies and insulted them, calling them “sons of bitches.” Another soldier recounts that they encountered an unarmed civilian who had his hands up. Another Israeli soldier “came closer, waited a few seconds and simply fired, without asking questions, without the suspect doing anything,” and then reported the incident as “terrorist eliminated.”
More: Witness describes how Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers “just enjoyed destroying” and stealing the belongings of murdered Palestinians. He claimed that soldiers stole “appliances, gold necklaces, cash, everything” and “considered it a blessing to rob Palestinians.”
None of those soldiers have been held accountable, despite their public confessions of their crimes, which are having enormous impact on social media.
“They were not terrorists”
Reading his words is shocking. For example, Yuval, a 34-year-old former soldier, recounts an episode that occurred in December 2023 in Khan Yunis. During one operation, his unit killed an elderly man and three unarmed boys. He only realized it later. “When we arrived, I realized that they were not terrorists… They were an old man and three boys,” he says.
It describes how a commander spit on the corpses and celebrated the attack. Yuval was silent. “I felt like a monster. I couldn’t stand being called a hero.” After the war he fell into a spiral of extreme shame, suicidal thoughts and isolation. “Maybe, deep down, I want to die to end everything.”
“I couldn’t stand being called a hero.”
Maya, a reservist and philosophy student, tells how she witnessed abuses and executions of Palestinian civilians, including the humiliation of a prisoner. “I felt hypocritical, dirty… How could I stay there and do nothing?” she tells the progressive newspaper. The contradiction between her civilian life and her role in the war haunts her. “He was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”
Crying before Goya’s ‘The Executions’
Yehuda witnessed an officer kill a clearly unarmed Palestinian. “This is murder, just murder,” another officer said, although they decided to cover it up. Months later, in the Prado Museum, a painting by Francisco de Goya with a man defenseless against rifles broke him emotionally (The May 3 shootings). “I broke down and started crying… I was devastated.”
Other soldiers describe looting, wanton destruction of homes and torture during interrogations. “If we are capable of doing something so terrible without anyone knowing, what else are we hiding?” Eitan wonders after witnessing torture. “You don’t forget the faces of the people you’ve killed. It stays with you,” he says.
“If we are capable of doing something so terrible without anyone knowing, what else are we hiding?”
Ran, an Air Force officer who planned bombings, admits to approving attacks knowing that dozens of civilians would die. “We planned attacks in which we knew children would die, and that no longer mattered,” he says.
After a night of massive bombing, he broke with the army. “I felt that if I continued, I would betray what little good was left in me,” he maintains.
“Moral damage” and silence
The experts cited by this medium explain that, unlike PTSD – based on fear – “moral injury” arises from violating fundamental ethical values, whether by acting or being a passive witness. “It involves guilt, shame, loss of meaning and of one’s own humanity,” says Professor Yossi Levi-Belz. The return to civilian life intensifies the internal conflict.
Added to this is that the Israeli Ministry of Defense does not officially recognize moral injury as an independent diagnosis and classifies it within PTSD. The army avoids the term and speaks of “identity injury.” “If we recognize moral damage, what happens to the slogan of the most moral army in the world?” says a mental health officer.
“They fear being called traitors, leftists or weak”
Many soldiers remain silent for fear of stigma. “They fear being called traitors, leftists or weak,” directly.
The report concludes that moral damage spreads silently among combatants and reservists. For many, the question remains unanswered: “What have we become? What have I become?”
