(14 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tel Aviv, Israel – 7 January 2025
1. Pan from people listening to screen reading (Hebrew): "Conference for the refusal of war"
2. SOUNDBITE (Hebrew) Yuval Green, 27-year-old medic, reservist:
"For me, actually, my hesitations regarding what should be done started just a few days after October 7th. I think it seemed clear to me that the war and the military operation was not the way to return the hostages. It seemed to me like a simple and delusional idea. How do we allow ourselves to bombard Gaza and kill Palestinians in such quantities, this is terrible in itself. But the thing that surprised me, I did not expect Israel to have special mercy for the Palestinians, Israel is not known for such mercy, but I didn’t think that we would endanger the hostages like that, I thought that the war would end in a very simple way, that the deal would be signed very quickly, and very quickly I was deceived."
3. People at conference listening
4. Pamphlet on table reading (English) "One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws"
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Max Kresch, conference organizer: ++PARTIALLY COVERED++
"Soldiers who served during this war signed a letter saying ”we’re not going to play along with this game anymore. Enough is enough. Enough manipulation, political manipulation of this war. We’re not going to be pawns in your war anymore and we’re raising our voice’. We appreciate soldiers, we appreciate the IDF, we do not appreciate a government who uses the IDF as a chessboard for their political gain."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Central Gaza Strip – 8 June 2024
6. Israeli military helicopter flying overhead, seen firing missile
7. Tanks moving near Central Gaza
8. People in the street amongst smoke
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Maghazi refugee camp, Gaza Strip – 3 January 2025
9. Various of rubble of destroyed buildings after Israeli airstrike
STORYLINE:
A growing number of Israeli soldiers have started to speak out against the 15-month conflict in Gaza and are refusing to serve, saying they saw or did things that crossed ethical lines.
While the movement is small – some 200 soldiers signed a letter saying they’d stop fighting if the government didn’t secure a ceasefire – soldiers say it’s the tip of the iceberg and they want others to come forward.
The group behind the refusal letter, Soldiers for the Hostages, is trying to garner momentum, holding an event earlier this month in Tel Aviv and gathering more signatures.
A panel of soldiers spoke about what they’d seen in Gaza. Organizers distributed poster-size stickers with a Martin Luther King Jr. quote: “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
Seven soldiers who’ve refused to continue fighting in Gaza spoke with AP, describing how Palestinians were indiscriminately killed and houses destroyed.
Several said they were ordered to burn or demolish homes that posed no threat, and they saw soldiers loot and vandalize residences.
Yuval Green, a 27-year-old medic, described abandoning his post last January after spending nearly two months in Gaza, unable to live with what he’d seen.
He said soldiers desecrated homes, using black markers meant for medical emergencies to scribble graffiti, and looted homes, looking for prayer beads to collect as souvenirs.
The final straw, he said, was his commander ordering troops to burn down a house, saying he didn’t want Hamas to be able to use it.
Green said he sat in a military vehicle, choking on fumes amid the smell of burning plastic.
AP video shot by Ami Bentov
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