Inside the Israeli military policy to ‘justify’ lethal actions in deadly attacks on civilians in Gaza
The Israeli military uses a de facto policy of “retrospective incrimination” for high-profile attacks that kill a large number of civilians without a clear military objective in Gaza, including deliberately counting Palestinians as “terrorists” even when unarmed, a soldier has revealed.
The whistleblower, who Israeli advocacy group Breaking the Silence put in contact with The Independent , said it is “policy” to reframe attacks with high death tolls or those on sensitive protected buildings like hospitals and schools. The same soldier said this action was deployed after Israel’s 25 August 2025 double-tap attack on Nasser medical complex in south Gaza, which killed 22 people, including five journalists, among them Independent Arabia reporter Mariam Abu Dagga.
They also said that all cameras in Gaza are seen as a “legitimate target”, regardless of whether they are being used by journalists, backing up previous tank officer testimony obtained by The Independent in a ten month investigation into Nasser hospital strike published this week. The military claimed at the time the target was a camera “positioned by Hamas” militants but Reuters later identified it as theirs. The whistleblower also confirmed the military did not try to contact Reuters or the hospital before the attack with their concerns about the camera.
“When [The military] understands there is a crisis, they try to connect the people that were killed or harmed to Hamas,” the whistleblower continued.
“Because if they can say the people who killed them were a Hamas terrorist, that would look better in the eyes of the world.”
“They call this process retrospective reframing.”
The soldier added that there is immense “pressure to make the [Israeli military] look as good as they can.”
“It’s a tool to handle the narrative and twist it like they are the good guys.”
“The international media is very reliant on the IDF… messages and announcements, it usually gets all over the world, so it’s the best that they can do.”
Breaking the Silence, which was formed by Israeli veterans that collects soldier testimonies of violations, said this testimony was corroborated by other accounts they have.
Breaking the Silence’s Executive Director Nadav Weiman, said since Israel unleashed its bombardment of Gaza on 7 October 2023, “reckless rules of engagement combined with its de facto procedures of retroactive incrimination are used by the IDF as its near-automatic justification for every bullet, shell or missile fired, and as a tool used to avoid carrying out real investigations”.
He added that a direct consequence of treating cameras as legitimate military targets in Gaza has “been astronomical number of journalists killed by the IDF”.
“The events that took the lives of media personnel at Nasser Hospital all derive from these IDF policies and must not be overshadowed by its attempts to single them out as a singular incident, or as conduct not in line with IDF protocol. These unjustifiable policies are at the base of how the IDF chooses to fight in Gaza.”
The Israeli military hit Nasser hospital on 25 August 2025 with four tank projectiles according to a year-long investigation by The Independent. The Independent’s findings show an initial strike hit a Reuters camera on an eastern external stairwell, killing Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri, alongside a second hit on a separate area near to the operating room, where medics would rest between operations.
